Beware before you buy a Peugeot.

It is not just the ever more common incidence of everything going wrong with the car at the first service after the warranty expires (which is the case with our Peugeot 3008), but the astonishing price difference once you start paying for parts.

At the 110 000 km service we were told by the service consultant that the one rear shock absorber was leaking. Both needed to be replaced according to him. The quoted price a mere R27 000. Add brakes to be replaced and the visit was going to be more than R31 000.

We did not accept this and as the vehicle is past the 100 000 km warranty we took it to one of the top wheel/tyre/brake fitment brands for a second opinion. The shocks have been replaced for R2 600 including labour and VAT.

The first issue issue is that I believe Peugeot fit defective shocks if they start leaking after 100 000 km of tar road driving. The second is the same job would cost 10 times more at Peugeot than a nationwide fitment centre. Peugeot cannot argue about original parts being better because those are the very ones leaking.

My purpose in writing this to warn others about Peugeot in South Africa. It looks great on the show room floor, has all the technology in it.....but when it starts to falter, there is no limit as to how you will be ********** by the after sales business they have created. I will not go into how poor the general service standard is in addition to this incident.