Newbie looking for info on 205s

[yellabowley]

Afternoon all,

I'm new to the forum and was looking for some info on the 205.

I've been looking for a cheap car thats good on fuel and I am considering an LPG conversion so I've been looking at petrols.

I was initially looking at 10 year old small cars but then a 205 cti caught my eye with the seller claiming it to be one of the most economical petrols about. The only figure I can find though is that the 1.6 does around 57mpg on the combined cycle. This would obviously be spot on as with an LPG conversion you'd get the equivalent of around 100mpg.

The main questions I have are as follows:

What sort of real world mpg are people getting from their petrol 205s and what is the difference in mpg between the 1.4, 1.6 and 1.9?
Has anyone ever done an LPG conversion to a 205 and how did it go?
I do quite high miles (mainly motorway) and would be using it daily. A family friend is a Peugeot specialist mechanic and knows the 205 well so maintenance would be inexpensive but I just wondered how well they cope as daily drivers.
And finally the only classics I have owned have been from the 60s and ran on the old 4star leaded fuel. I know the 80s/90s was the changeover period from leaded to unleaded and wondered whether the 205 runs on unleaded or does it need the lead additive?

That's it for now. Thanks very much for your time and I look forward to speaking to you.

Dave

[oldpug]

All the 205CTi`s I`ve seen have the 1.6 XU GTi engine and there is no way you will ever get 57mpg!more like 25mpg. Remember what ever 205 you look at will be over 20yrs old and very "tired",the soft top on the CTi will probably need work,so I would stay clear of CTi`s or GTi`s, LPG conversion a waste of time and money . If you are looking for economy and reliability the 205 Diesel`s are bullet proof,and the most economical petrol 205`s are the 1.1 & 1.4 TU engine with mono injection which has no problem with unleaded.As said they are old cars but if you find one that's been well looked after you will have yourself a cracking little car.

[frodo]

I've owned about a dozen 205s since the late 80s, and have a 1.6 CTi at the moment. That gives me 38mpg (if you only get 25 you have two lead feet). Smaller petrol engines (1.1 or pref.1.4) will do about 10% better, but a diesel should manage 50-55. After cats arrived in 1992 the GTi ended, but the CTi got a detuned 1.9 for a while. I think a lot of nice 1.1 and 1.4 205s got crushed during that daft scrappage scheme.

Your problem will be finding a decent one nearby, with life left. Bodywork should be fine, but at 16 years old minimum, lots of small things could fail. Maintenance should be cheap, but some parts are getting hard to find, and you may have to visit scrapyards. Unless you have a yen for a 205, get something less than 10 years old if you want reliable everyday wheels.

And any of the petrol cars should run on normal unleaded. If you can find a diesel which has been carefully looked after, it could last till 200K, and the turbos go very nicely after a shot of diesel conditioner!

Oh, one last thing - if you convert a CTi to LPG, you won't have much boot left...