Peugeot 306 Insurance Groups Guide

A list of the new and old UK insurance groups for all Peugeot 306 engines/models including petrol and diesels. Important guide to gauging Peugeot 306 insurance costs.

If you are looking at taking out an insurance policy or renewing an existing one it's a pretty good guide to see how much it is going to cost you. In reality there are many things which will affect Peugeot 306 insurance, in my experience the biggest ones (in order) are:

• Age
• Number of years driving
• NCB
• At fault claims
• Convictions (generally minor speeding offences such as SP30's won't make much difference though)
• Where you live
• Annual mileage

As of Jan 1st 2010 the new insurance group system went live in the UK. Instead of being banded from 1-20 the new system is from 1 - 50 which is claimed to make premiums more accurate and fairer.

Anyway here's the current Peugeot 306 insurance groups:

Petrol

Engine Size	Model	Insurance Group
1.4	L/LX/Meridian/Equinox/Miami/Verve/Vivant	9
1.6	L/LX/Meridian/Vivant/XS	11
1.8	GLX (automatic)	11
1.8	XS/Meridian	13
2.0	XSi	23
2.0	GTi-6	30
2.0	Rallye	31

Diesel

Engine Size	Model	Insurance Group
1.9D	L/LX/Meridian	9
1.9 Turbo Diesel	D Turbo/L/LX/Vivant/Meridian/GLX	11
2.0 HDi	D Turbo/L/LX/Meridian/GLX	11

For anyone that is interested here are the old insurance groups as well, please note these are irrelevant as of Jan 1st 2010. Roughly speaking the groups change didn't have much of an effect on 306 insurance costs, as you can see most of the groups approximately doubled which is as expected according to this article.

Petrol

Engine Size	Model	Insurance Group
1.4	L/LX/Meridian/Equinox/Miami/Verve/Vivant	4
1.6	L/LX/Meridian/Vivant/XS	5
1.8	GLX (automatic)	5
1.8	XS/Meridian	6
2.0	XSi	11
2.0	GTi-6	15
2.0	Rallye	16

Diesel

Engine Size	Model	Insurance Group
1.9D	L/LX/Meridian	4
1.9 Turbo Diesel	D Turbo/L/LX/Vivant/Meridian/GLX	5
2.0 HDi	D Turbo/L/LX/Meridian/GLX	5

How are car insurance groups decided?

The insurance group a car falls into is probably the largest factor in deciding how much it will cost you to insure it. According to Thatcham, who provide 70% of the information used to establish the groupings, car insurance groups are decided on the following factors:

• The time and cost of parts required to fix the car if it was in a crash at 15km/h.
• Cost of car when new
• Performance. 0 - 60mph time and top speed.
• Cost of a list of 23 standard parts.
• Car security e.g. alarms and immobilisers.

Car insurance is expensive but we all have to pay it. Taking into account the above factors, I would say Peugeot 306's come off quite well because the low cost of parts and original price and the fact that many models have factory standard alarms and immobilisers. Let me know if i've missed off any models.

Peugeot 306 Video Review Collection

Here is a collection of Peugeot 306 video reviews which are floating around on YouTube, useful for prospective buyers and it's also interesting to see how the car was received by the press at the time (awesomely of course!).

Jeremy Clarkson reviews the Peugeot 306 on Top Gear in 1993

Feature by Tiff Needell on the Peugeot 306 GTI6

Vicki Butler-Hendersen drives the Peugeot 306 Rallye

Peugeot 306 GTI6 trounces the hot-hatch competition on Top Gear

10.00min 306 review by Dream Car Garage

So there it is, a useful collection of 306 review videos I hope, if anyone has any thoughts please feel free to comment below.

Peugeot 306 Overview & General Information

The Peugeot 306 is a small family car produced by French car manufacturer Peugeot from 1993 to 2002.

It was available in a large number of trim and engine variants to suit almost any type of motorist, from the incredibly frugal yet eye wateringly boring 1.9d to the balls out 167bhp GTi6 which was the hot hatch to beat in its day and is still held in high regard by many petrol heads.

Overview
Suspension & Handling
Front: McPherson strut with anti-roll bar
Rear: Independent torsion bar/trailing arm with anti-roll bar.

The 306 included passive-rear steering which was achieved by specially designed compliance bushes on the rear axle mounts. Under hard corning the axle shifts slightly to point the rear wheels away from the direction of the turn and so helping the car around the corner. It was this system which gave the Peugeot 306 (and other PSA vehicles) its famously sharp turn in and apparent grip.

Like previous Peugeot’s the 306 quickly gained a reputation for its tendency to oversteer when lifting off the throttle mid corner (known as lift off oversteer). Click here to view a YouTube video explaining and demonstrating lift off oversteer in a front wheel drive car.

Engine Variants
As I mentioned earlier the Peugeot 306 was made available with an engine to suit everyone. This includes but is not limited to::

• 1.4 8v petrol
• 1.9 8v diesel
• 1.9 8v turbo diesel
• 2.0 8v petrol
• 2.0 16v petrol

Body Styling and Facelifts
Phase 1 - 1993 - 1997
Clearly distinguishable from the later phases by the front grill, square(ish) headlights and rectangle fog lights (higher spec models only). The phase 1 styling was strongly influenced by the classic shape of its predecessor, the 309.

Peugeot 306 Phase 1 Front

Peugeot 306 Phase 1 Rear

All photo copyright belongs to original artist.

Phase 2 - 1997 - 1999
In 1997 Peugeot redesigned the front of the car to give it a more rounded, modern look. This includes a new front badge, ‘D’ shaped fog lights and new headlights. The rear also gained new style lights.

Peugeot 306 Phase 2 Rear

Peugeot 306 Phase 2 Front

Phase 3 - 1999 - 2001
The changes from phase 2 to phase 3 are more subtle but to the trained eye the two are easily distinguishable. I will go into the full extent of these changes in another post but for now: headlights and fog lamps were updated to have clear lenses as opposed to frosted, complete external colour coding of bump strips and side skirts, removal of black plastic strip from bottom of tailgate.

Peugeot 306 Phase 3 Front

Peugeot 306 Phase 3 Rear

Notable models
Peugeot 306 1.9 D-Turbo
One of the first commercially successul hot-hatch diesels, the Peugeot D-Turbo combined the sporty looks and handling of the Peugeot XSi with the economy associated with a diesel.

Peugeot 306 D Turbo

Peugeot 306 Rallye/GTi6 2.0 16v
The 306 Rallye is, in the eyes of many, one of the most memorable 90’s hot hatches. Personally there are roughly four aspects which made this car such a winning combination:

• The powerful 2.0 16v XU10J4RS engine
• Close ratio 6 speed gear box made the most of the above (Peugeot were the first to release a hot hatch with a 6 speed box)
• Nimble handing and great steering feedback

These deserve a post of their own so I won’t go into too much detail.

Conclusion
The 306 was and still is a fantastic car, if well cared for the engines are strong and they do not suffer from rust unlike other marques of the time. Parts are still easily available from any motor factor and there is a wealth of information on the internet for DIY mechanics. There are also many active owners clubs such as pug306.net, 306gti6 and rallye owners club and club-306.

It Begins...

2012 is the year I finally start blogging. I intend this blog to be a valuable resource to potential and current 306 owners. It seems appropriate this first post should be a bit of a homage to the 306 so here we go.