Firstly the good news... the 307 SW is a very practical car with 3 individual seats in the rear (plus the anchor points in the boot for a further two on the 5 seat version) that can be individually positioned and/or removed. This makes for a good family car and, given that this is in the Focus / Astra class, there is plenty of legroom on offer; I'm 6'6" and my 8 year old son, who is also tall for his age, can comfortably sit behind me.
As well as regular family duties, we've undertaken a number of long journeys in the car, including trips across France and from the south east of England up to Scotland and back, and it has always proved to be comfortable. The standard fit (on the SW) panoramic glass roof also makes the cabin very airy.
Unfortunately, the package is let down by poor build quality. We have had to replace various switches, the coil packs, anti-roll bars, boot struts etc. etc. and the 20,000 mile service intervals can also result in problems being more pronounced by the time they're identified.
Overall, the 307SW is a well executed package but should be bought with careful consideration!
I've finally sold it now so I can leave this review lol, can't ****** stand the Peugeot 307!! Worst motoring decision of my life to get that stupid hunk of junk.
It was about five years old so I was expecting at least another five years out of it, but it gave me a grand total of just under five months before I sold it on to someone else. I feel bad about that, but they got a bargain in a way, probably because everyone knows what a liability the Peugeot 307 is, everyone apart from muggins here.
I got it second hand in a private deal, off a guy on ebay with 95% feedback so maybe I should have known better. It was going cheap and all I wanted was a basic hatchback for getting from A to B. All I can say is that it never left A!
Pretty much as soon as I got it, the bumper started to fall off. Looked like he'd glued it on for the sale. I can well believe it was just falling off on its own though, and it wasn't crash damage, cos the rest of the trim seems pretty loose on closer inspection.
In the next couple of months the radiator died, leaving me to limp home filling it up with water at every service stop. Then the next week it had a master cylinder go, not a cheap job to get done. The AC packed in after another month or so, meanwhile I was learning that the gearbox was actually rubbish and it wasn't just me needing to 'get used to it' during the test drive.
It had all sorts of stupid faults with the warning lights and panel displays too. I got them looked at once when it was in for the first big repair, but the quote was too high on top of what I was already getting done.
I literally must have lost about a grand just on repairs and other 'consumables', let alone what I lost comparing what I bought it for and what I sold it for.
The only thing I could mark higher than two stars is comfort. Funnily enough it is a really comfy car to be in, apart from the constant feeling that it's about to break down again... It was rubbish to drive though, I said the gears were pathetic, and the engine was also way too small for such a chunky overweight car. All in all a total stinker.
We had a lease deal where we paid a certain amount each month (I forget how much exactly) for a new car, but didn't have to keep it in the end. That, my friends, was the best decision we made! The Peugeot 307 turned out to be, most definitely, not a keeper. It was ok, not a total shambles, but we would be surprised and happy if it lasted more than about 3 months without needing to go back to the dealer for this or that.
I don't know whether we had a good dealer or whether it was something to do with the lease deal (given that they had to take it back at the end of the lease!), but they sorted out the repairs well enough, although not all that quickly.
The repairs on our Peugeot 307 began early and were fairly consistently timed, usually at a really bad time. We didn't go over our maximum number of AA callouts but it was close. It had quite a few big mechanical problems I recall, like the suspension, and the engine (not the whole engine, just something going wrong, twice if I remember rightly).
The other problems were mostly little electrical problems like warning lights coming on for no reason, or the door latches playing up. There were also a lot of odd rattles and whines from here and there which we never really worked out, and the dealer didn't seem to take any notice of when they did the end of lease valuation (although we did have to stand our ground on a few things we thought were just plain wear and tear).
So basically I'd have to suggest not touching it with a barge pole! But still, if you have it as an option maybe as a hire car or something, then it is a good car in short bursts. It gets a really good return on a tank of fuel, I think it was running in the 50s mpg most of the time. We changed from a Galaxy to get this and it was generally a lot cosier to be in, nice and comfy. The interior trim didn't stand up to much from our kids, but that's to be expected perhaps. We were penalised for that at the end of the lease.
The seven seats were one reason we got it in the first place, at the time we'd just had our fourth. Those seats in the boot were good but I doubt we'd get any of our kids in them for long now, certainly not the eldest. They were pretty cramped I recall.
But anyway I would have to say don't bother, certainly not if you're buying it outright. Second hand, by now, they must be in awful shape.
We had one of these for 3 years from new, from 2002 onwards. We had an old Peugeot in the 70s, which was always good to us, and we wanted to go back to an old fave. It was the biggest car mistake we ever made. Stupidly we didn't even read up or ask around about other people's experiences of them. If we had done that even briefly I'm sure we would have heard about all these problems.
Thing was about the Peugeot 307 is that (and I know this sounds naive) it really looked so solid. Along with our past experience we just thought it would be fine.
I can't really remember what order any of these happened in, and because most of them were done inside the warranty I don't know what they would have cost to do. Anyway our Peugeot 307 2.0 HDi had a rash of wiring and electrical issues, which in a modern car can affect anything from the locks to the stereo and everything else pretty much. I think it must have had maybe ten visits to the dealer just for that.
Sometimes those visits were combined with other problems, usually pretty major, and worryingly recurrent. It had four clutches in three years! There were two pretty major engine foul ups, and at various times it would just lose power, never particularly dangerously but definitely not encouraging.
I said our Peugeot 307 looked solid and reassuring at first, but the trim itself came loose on a number of occasions. That was on the outside, and the inside trim wasn't much better. The carpet especially looked completely shot when we finally sold up, we did quite a lot of glueing to get it looking anywhere near presentable.
I feel like I should say something about what it's like. It is a spacious enough car, it got good fuel economy and it's ok to drive (although I recall it didn't corner at all well), but it spent so much time back with the dealer it's sort of hard to remember what it drove like. We ended up using our other car most of the time. When we eventually sold our Peugeot 307, as a part exchange for a Honda (which has been infinitely more reliable), we made a big loss, but it was either that or let it bleed us dry with more and more repairs.
I think the point I'm trying to make, if I haven't been clear already, is AVOID THE PEUGEOT 307!! It is a menace.
nice car, drives nicely, a litlle expensive because of the many filters u have to chance frequently!!
Thought this would be a good buy, large Peugeot 307 SW good for the family cheap on miles and cheap on road tax, but the reliability issues are disappointing. Blower fans resistor burn out, crazy engine management, claims there are faults, but all seems to be down to some fluid that needs to go in the car so that the cat at the front of the engine works, always coming up anti pollution then smoke bellowing out the back which apparently is a regeneration of the fap filter?? your always waiting for something to go wrong, spend more time looking in rear view mirror for smoke than looking forward. Maybe just a bad experience , but would not buy a Peugeot 307 again