There’ll probably be some mooing in the back rows this week as the ‘no comeback’ disclaimers for this week’s Shed get promoted from their usual quick mention at the end of the ad to headline status. We’ll get onto why this car is being disowned in a minute, but first let’s celebrate the SOTW debut of something that few expected to see in Peugeot showrooms, let alone Shed of the Week.
When the RCZ wowed the crowds as a concept at the 2007 Frankfurt show few believed it would be turned into a real car. But, two years later, there it was again at Frankfurt, this time as a production vehicle that had hardly changed from the concept.
At that time Peugeot was smarting from justifiable criticism of its products by folks who remembered how good Peugeots used to be on chassis dynamics. The RCZ was intended to help bring back some credibility in that department. If you could get past the sight of its voluminous back end, something Shed is obliged to do at home on a daily basis, it had a ‘special’, almost coachbuilt, look to it that took its cues from both Karmann Ghia and Zagato. It was actually built on the 308 platform but the ride height was 20mm lower than the 308’s, the tracks at both ends were wider, and the centre of gravity was 40mm lower. You could drop that last figure even further by having the double-bubble roof made out of carbon fibre. Pretty bespoke stuff for a car whose prices started at £21k for the 156hp version of the 1.6 THP turbo petrol – the same engine as the Mini Cooper S.
Despite its humble underpinnings, the first road tests of the RCZ were heartening for Peugeot fans. The ride was firmish but nicely controlled even on the optional 19-inch wheels. The flagship spec, as per our Shed, was the 1.6 THP GT. That had 200hp, 188lb ft at 1,700rpm with up to 203lb ft on overboost, and despite its hefty-for-the-time weight of 1,372kg (64 per cent of which was at the front), a reasonable 0-62mph time of 7.6 seconds. Allied to long gearing (100mph in third) the THP motor was pleasingly fuel-efficient, its CO2 figure of 163g/km putting it in Band G which in money terms is £255 pa.
The cabin told you how they got the prices low, being clearly 308-related, but it was quite well put together and the leather that was standard in the GT did lift the ambience. The driving position was all right too with no back-ruining pedal offsettery, though the steering wheel was more taxi than sporti. The back seats were largely decorative. The positive side of that was that you could double the luggage capacity to 760 litres just by folding them down, but the downside was that you had to shove your gear in via the main door as there was no rear entry, another scenario all too familiar to Shed. Still, you did get a switchable two-position rear spoiler, which was always good for impressing the lassies. You could almost say that sort of thing in 2009. Not now of course.
RCZs have become a bit less special these days. They made well over 50,000 of them, that milestone being passed in February 2013, two and a half years before the last one rolled off the Magna Steyr Graz line in Austria. At the time of going to press, there were around 160 RCZs on sale in the UK, and the entry price is low. Our 93,000-miler from 2012 in flagship 1.6 turbo petrol spec wasn’t even the cheapest one at £2,000. A similar looking, privately-owned 2011 1.6 diesel example with nearly 131,000 miles on the clock, worn suspension and a rusty rear spring was going for under £1,700 elsewhere. The only petrol RCZ that undercut our Shed was another 2011 car, this time with 125,000 miles on the clock and a slightly forlorn MOT-expired demeanour about it, at £1,790.
As per the rules of SOTW our Shed of course is correctly ticketed-up, and until next February too, the last test showing nothing more than worrying than slightly defective headlamp lenses. Shed’s eyesight isn’t able to discern what those slight defects might be. He thinks it might have been a slow day at the testing station.
The catch with this car is the illuminated engine management light. It’s a known thing on these. With classic French insouciance it comes on randomly and just as randomly goes off again. Sometimes but not always it’s accompanied by limp mode. Sometimes you’ll waste a lot of money on useless or contradictory diagnoses. Sometimes it’s fixable by replacing the turbo. Fortunately you can douse the EML by turning the ignition on and off three times while looking at a mirror and shouting ‘good moaning!’.
The vendor says this car drives OK, but they don’t add the phrase ‘all the time’ to that, so it’s a gambler’s choice. With luck you’ll cop onto a car that is both interesting to look at and interesting to drive. Shed won’t have it because it’s got ‘follow me home headlights’, and he really doesn’t want anyone, especially the po-po, following him home of an evening.
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