Peugeot is one of the most ubiquitous car brands on the face of the planet, and a common sight on roads all over the world, including right here in the UK. Peugeot vehicles are also a staple of used, seized and salvage car auctions, just like the ones we run right here at RAW2K.
This means that just like every other major car brand, it’s constantly being compared to its competitors by prospective buyers - and no matter what their background or circumstances, one of the most common questions that these buyers tend to ask is - how reliable are Peugeot cars? So, let’s take a look in a bit more detail.
What do automotive journalists think?
Let’s be honest - reliability is to some extent subjective, especially since so many of us tend to judge brands based on our own personal experience of them. However, if you’ve never had a Peugeot before and you’ve only got the word of automotive journalists and publications to go from, then on the whole the results are encouraging.
In recent years, Peugeot has managed to climb an impressive five places in reliability surveys published in the Telegraph, and it’s also ranked consistently pretty highly by motoring websites like Carwow. Peugeot’s continual improvement was marked by some particularly prestigious results just a few years ago in 2019, as it was ranked top place in a reliability survey by JD Power - an annual survey that’s watched with notable interest by large sections of the industry.
Specifically, JD Power identified Peugeot was being the most reliable brand in the UK, which makes it around 54% more reliable than the industry standard. Those are some pretty impressive numbers!
Why are Peugeot cars so reliable?
Peugeot’s reliable reputation is based on various different factors, and lots of them revolve around the affordability of the brand. The smaller models of Peugeot especially tend to be regarded as both affordable and highly reliable, particularly models such as the Peugeot 107, 206, and 308. (All models you can often find in our own online salvage auctions right here at RAW2K.)
We won’t go into exhaustive detail, but just to give you a quick idea, here are the biggest key reasons why Peugeot cars tend to be seen as reliable.
1. They’re versatile
Most Peugeot cars are generally seen as excellent all-rounders, equally at home on rugged country roads as they are in tight city streets. Even the budget models are noted for their ability to endure the demands of harsher environments - so much so that older models of Peugeot are still a common sight in places like Benin, in West Africa. Whether you’re planning on taking to urban environments or driving out in the sticks, a Peugeot tends to be a pretty safe bet.
2. They eschew complex infotainment systems
Peugeot cars tend not to come installed with the most sophisticated in-car tech, like in-built satellite navigation systems, dynamic reversing camera screens, and similar gadgetry. This might seem like a bit of a disappointment at first, but it has several tangible advantages for buyers. First of all, obviously it keeps the purchase price down.
Secondly, while this tech is nice to have, when it does go wrong, it tends to do so in quite a dramatic (and expensive) way. This is where a lot of the most luxurious brands fall down, and why certain high-end models of car have the highest purchase prices and (paradoxically) the lowest reliability scores. This is a near constant frustration for buyers - surely if you spend thousands on a luxury car, you’d expect it to be reliable.
Since Peugeot cars don’t have this technology, it saves drivers from the significant costs that faults can incur. In a nutshell, a simpler construction means there’s less to go wrong, automatically driving up its reliability.
3. Affordable repairs
Partially due to the lack of in-car tech we mentioned above, repair costs for Peugeot tend to be comfortably affordable (or as comfortably affordable as any car repairs can ever be). This means that on the whole, it’s rarely too much of a problem for drivers to deal with any problems almost as soon as they occur, preventing the car from having any lengthy - or costly - downtime off the road, and ultimately contributing to the brand’s high reliability scores.
4. Replacement parts are widely available
Again, this point is closely tied to the previous one - part of the reason why Peugeot cars are cheap and easy to fix is because they’re very common cars, and so it’s generally easy for mechanics to find replacement parts. That makes the repair far more straightforward than it might be for a luxury car with very specific (and possibly far more expensive) parts.
And of course, if you’re on the hunt for more replacement parts yourself - or even a whole new used, seized or salvage Peugeot car - then you’re in exactly the right place. Here at RAW2K, we supply a huge range of used, seized and salvage cars from leading global manufacturers - not just from Peugeot, but also others including Renault, Citroen and Volkswagen. Why not take a look around our site, and see what you can find?
