Rc 206 Views

• General Goods

The 206 was mainly manufactured in Peugeot's Poissy and Mulhouse factories although the car is also produced by Iran Khodro in Iran for that market; a notchback sedan model was developed in Iran under the name Peugeot 206 SD which will reportedly be exported as well.[1] It was assembled in Chile for the Mexican and Colombian markets (French made 206s were cheaper than Chilean-built ones, in Chile). The Brazilian production in Porto Real, Rio de Janeiro, started in 2001, followed by the SW version in 2005. The Brazilian production features 1.0L 16V, 1.4L 8V, and 1.6L 16V engines, the last two of which are flexible fuel engines (petrol/ethanol). The 1.0L version used a Renault-sourced engine and was produced until 2006.

The Peugeot 206 was also built at Ryton in Coventry, England, however, with the introduction of the '207' to the range Peugeot decided to pull the plug on the Ryton factory which closed in January, 2007 with the loss of 2,300 jobs making it another blow to the British motor industry after MG Rover collapsed. The Peugeot 206 proved to be a sales success all over Europe. It was the best-selling car in Europe from 2001 to 2003.[citation needed] The 1.4L XR was the best-selling model. On May 26, 2005, the 206 celebrated the five millionth unit produced since its commercial launch on 10 September 1998. Sales in the United Kingdom were strong from the start, with the 206 regularly being among the nation's five most popular new cars during its first six years on sale. Second-hand examples of the 206 traditionally hold their value well, due to high demand.[citation needed]

Introduced to the market in 2003, the Peugeot 206 gti 180 and 206 RC brought high performance to the product range. The range topping gti 180 was brought to the UK market, while the 206 RC was introduced to the rest of europe. The new 'hot hatch' used the 2 litre EW10J4S engine, which produced 175 bhp thanks to variable valve timing and modified inlet and exhaust manifolds. Other features on the 206 GTI 180 and 206 RC include 17 inch alloy wheels, racing bucket front seats, a short shift gears linkage and altered gearbox ratios (1st & 2nd gears). The new car was capable of reaching 62mph in 7.4 seconds; equaling it rivals, the Honda Civic type R and the Renault Clio 172.

The car is sold under the 207 Compact nameplate in Argentina, Mexico and Uruguay, in order to differentiate it from the European 207 CC and RC, which are also sold in those countries. Peugeot planned to name it 207 Brasil in Brazil, but soon dropped the Brasil from the name, as this decision gained generally negative reactions from the media.[10] The Brazilian 207 has also been criticized because it was perceived essentially as a facelifted 206, despite Peugeot's efforts to market it as an entirely new car and even selling it at a higher base price.[11]