When you think of Peugeot these days you may think of unreliable french cars made from cheese (well the ones I have seen recently have been), but back from my era (the 80s) Peugeot was such a cool car brand, and they also made one of the best hot hatches ever made, and that was the 205 GTi, which brings us into today's car. The Peugeot 205 GTi 1.9.
Source
The Gti was based on the 205, which is why it is called the 205 GTi. The normal 205 hit the market back in 1983. The basic 205 was available in both Petrol and Diesel engines. Petrol Engines ranged from a tiny 1 litre all the way up to the GTi's 1.9, while the Diesel ranged from 1.7 up to a 1.9
There were 3 choices of transmission, a 4 or 5-speed manual or a 4-speed auto.
The 205 was also available in a 3/5 door hatchback, a convertible or a 3 door van.
But let's focus on the GTi. The older GTi's from 1984 had 1.6-litre Engines, known as the XU5J which had 1.4hp, which doesn't seem like much today. In 87 the XU5J had work done to it, (new cylinder head and bigger valves) which brought the power up to 115hp, this version was known as the XU5JA. The 1.9 GTi has a XU9JA engine which had a bit more power at about 126hp but later cars with catalytic converters had less power at 120hp. I believe that people loved the revvyness of the shorter stroke 1.6 compared to the 1.9, which was a bit lazier but more powerful in compression.
The GTi 205 had a few rivals such as the Golf GTi MK2, The Ford Fiesta XR2i Mk3 and a few others.
Owner of Photo : Kieran White from Manchester, England
What was Mike's 205GTi, and how much did he pay?
Mikes 205 was a 1990 2.5 GTi 1.9 finished in white. I do love a white 205 GTi.
Mike paid £1000 for the car, which makes it the first car to cost over £1000, before spending extra on it.
What needed doing to the car?
Mikes car had a budget of £2000 and he had to do all this...
Replace the gear linkage
Full Exhaust replacement
Body trim (arches, bumpers, side skirts etc)
Real light lenses
front indicator
water pump
cam/fan belts
water pump
Swapped the horrid aftermarket steering wheel for a classic GTi one.
New CD player
Set the ride height to the original height ...
They managed to do all this work for £653, which was way under budget, which means the total came to £1,653.
What did Mike sell it for?
£2200, which gave them a profit of £547.
How much are they worth now?
Well, the cheapest one (3 doors, convertibles are cheaper) is about £7000 with about 119K miles on the clock, while the mint ones are as expensive as £24,000. I would say Mikes one now (if it was still on the road) is more towards the £7000 mark
Which was your favourite Hatchback between 1984 and 1994. Mine was the BMW E36 compact. :P
Ford Laser white lightning.
Thank you. I had never heard of them before :) I guess they were pretty quick
Yeah good for there time😁