Big French cars. I’m not talking about adapted vans or even the wonderful old-model Renault Espace, but those great big saloons and hatches designed to shame the boring Germans. Are they worth a go? Well, it is worth daring to be different, even if you do have to be prepared for the worst. My local garage used to be a Citroën main agent, who had to explain to owners of old high-spec XMs that it was a £30k car when brand new so fixing them isn’t necessarily cheap. Remember that.
Sticking with Citroën, the obvious choice is the C6. You might be super-scared of one, like me, but there are some big-mileage examples up for grabs, which I always find very reassuring. So let’s go for a cheap and cheerful one with a whopping 188,000 miles on the clock: a 2006 2.7 HDi V6 Exclusive that’s up for £2795. There’s lots to go wrong, but it is with a dealer, who is obliged to make sure that it all works. Otherwise, there’s another Exclusive but from 2009 with a full service history and a barely believable 35,000 miles – for a fairly whopping £8995. It’s worth it, though, because we will never see its like again. Sadly.
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We can always go old-school if we don’t want to take too much of a chance. The Peugeot 605 is a straightforward and stylish way to travel, but they’re becoming increasingly difficult to find. Still, you won’t have to pay much and they will mostly be HDis. I saw a great 2002 SE-spec automatic with leather and everything, 109,000 miles and three previous owners at a dealer. The asking price was a very reasonable £1900 and it looked dead smart.
Just for fun, I went on one of those European websites where they have about one picture and barely any details and just expect you to turn up and buy. I was extremely tempted to get on a ferry to Belgium, where a magnificent 605 V6 manual petrol lived. It had covered a kilometre-converted 93,000 miles and was up for the euro equivalent of £1287.
