As somebody who's owned two 406's (and still has one of them) i have to disagree with Avant. My local taxi firm still uses 406's (some of them on an X reg) with 300k+ on them and are still fine, the drivers prefer them to the 407's they experimented with for a while.

The 406 has a surprisingly decent reliability record given the reputation of the manufacturer. My first 406 was a 2.0HDi Executive and it was very good, only a dozey woman in a Zafira crashing into it prevented me owning it longer. I have a Y reg 2.0 petrol auto and aside from one of the fans giving up about 5 years ago its never given any trouble - and even with that problem it was still driveable due to having two fans. Other than that its been bulletproof and is superb in the snow (i took my old one through 3 feet of it and never got stuck once, and it started in minus 7 with no trouble).

Out of those choices i'd look at a 406. Diesel Mondeo's of that sort of age werent that economical anyway. The Rover 75 has a decent BMW diesel engine and it is a nice car which would be well suited to a motorway commute but im not sure i'd be confident about doing 20k odd a year in one.

Bad points of the 406 will be that it'll be tough to get one with under 100k on it now. Even the very newest models are now 8 years old. After a couple of years on your sort of mileage it will be worth sod all. They seem to go through brake discs surprisingly quickly and they have discs on all four wheels. Anything without a service history isnt worth looking at.

ETA: Avoid older models with the 1.9 and 2.1 litre diesel engines at all costs. Rough and not very economical. The HDi is much better.

Edited by jamie745 on 14/01/2012 at 00:28

i currently have a 406 hdi exec estate 2.0 hdi 110,bought in 2008 for £1500.00 at 158,000 miles,now in 2014 it has covered 285,000 miles and has never missed a beat,

easily the best car i have ever had,cheap tax,50 mpg on a run,clutch and cambelt recently,regular oil changes,thats all,

i spoke to a taxi driver in norwich with one and he promptly laughrd at the miles it hadnt done not what it had done!!!!!!,i was then looking at his speedometer with 355,000!!!!!!!!!!!

he said i have a 200 mile journey today,i cant stop,however ill let you know i am not selling this car with less than 400,000 miles on the clock........

i dont know the secret,but some people out there do,older peugeots are unbelievable

In December 1999 i bought a 6 month old 406 with1,500 miles on it. Later it passed to my Father, who still drives it. Apart from 2 radiators nothing has failed or stopped working. The second radiator failed 9 years ago. Its well looked after and only done about 130,000 miles now. However its a 3 litre petrol, but as has been said before Peugeots diesels go on and on too. Of course any old car with an unknown history is a potential money pit, but 406's are brilliant if you get a good one, and i dont think that is too hard.