TLDR version: crap Toyota Corolla hatch, awesome Peugeot hatch that powered off while driving, does carsales warranty cover this showstopper and has anyone else had significant or intermittent/unfixable problems with Peugeots
Non TLDR version:
Please bear with me as this post has a long backstory for context and apologies for any repetition; it is not my objective to turn this post into a rant.
I bought a second hand 2015 Toyota Corolla Ascent hatch a few years ago from a Toyota dealership and, because I previously owned a 2003 Peugeot 307 hatch I hate every aspect of the Corolla. To summarise key issues, the driver and passenger seats of the Corolla curve in on the inside so exacerbated my back and left shoulder pain, the peugeot felt like driving on clouds light and quick turning and quiet engine, and the aircon didnt need the engine on from memory only electrics turned on and if you set it to 18 degrees even on a 40 degree day the whole inside of the car is 18 degrees in 5 minutes, and I got 850km per fillup.. in contrast the corolla I get 450km max per same cost fillup and feel every pebble on the road with a noisy as hell rocky engine and needing the engine on to turn the aircon to maximum which is the only setting that gives any significant cold air makes it sound and feel like a tornado is hitting your face and doesn't even permeate enough cold air to back passengers so they cook.
I'd like to do a swap for the Corolla for a decent older Peugeot or perhaps some other car.
However, the Peugeot I owned had a showstopper problem that manifested itself about a month after I bought it for $2150 from some dude who used to own a used car dealership… on a 39 degree day whilst driving at 70km/hrs it completely powered off (engine/electric shutdown). Also, from memory the Revs indicator was always hovering at 10 (I think it was 10) even at idle and having driven cars before this I thought that was supposed to sit at 0 unless you are pushing the accelerator? I never had any issues powering it back on. That day, it powered off about 40 times and from that day forth for the next 2 odd years I lived a nightmare where it would both randomly and consistently power off while driving (some days it did it almost every day for a few months then I'd have a couple of months respite. It would do it typically at 70km/hr, descending from around 30km/hr or at idle. It never powered off when driving above 70km/hr.
Appart from this issue, the car had no other issues and was a pleasure to drive.
I had it serviced at a prestige motor mechanic and had repairs done that was very affordable on the face of it rather than taking it to Peugeot directly due to their prospective costs per hour and minimum diagnosis cost etc and because I only paid $2150 for it I was not wanting to fork out much money to try and make it the perfect driveable car, but the powering off of course never happened whilst it was in the possession of the mechanic and their Peugeot Planet system was showing funky results so several times I forked out $700 on their recommendation of 'we think it is this but cannot be sure' (from memory they couldn't really pinpoint if it was electrical or mechanical - one time they replaced the 4 spark plugs and the entire electrical coil housing, another time they replaced the alternator I think). Strangely it did stop the powering off each time and the car felt smoother but it only gave 1 month of respite before it started happening again.
Sooo, going back to my current goal to get another Peugeot but knowing there is a real risk it might be another lemon that is hard to diagnose and fix, my question is. Does anyone know 1) if any of the warranty tiers provided by Carsales (Basic, Standard or Comprehensive) would have suited/covered to the point of permanent rectification my Peugeot showstopper problem? They say they need to receive a quote in order to assess snd hopefully approve a claim, but in my case with the Peugeot, I'd have provided quotes each time but with recurrence of the same issue as they could never fix it 100% so might they also 2) have an exclusion for this which means after 1 chance to fix they might not have covered the subsequent attempts?
Also, question 3) has anyone else had a Peugeot with a showstopper or annoying problems that are hard to diagnose and/or remedy permanently?
Dunno why people are hating on the OP for getting a Peugeot so much. I have a mid 2000s Peugeot that is a short commute car for work. At $1,500 it was a bargain for a car that has a lot of features that I couldn't get for the price in other cars. Sure it has its issues (for me it is sluggish off the mark at the lights/low speeds and can occasionally stall when moving at low speed in peak hour). But I'll live with that for a car that is really comfortable to drive (high roof, big windscreen, leather seats, spacious for a 5 door hatch, working air-con, electric windows/mirrors etc.) and stop me putting a lot of wear on the main newer car.
I reckon I'd be happy to put 2k of repairs into the thing if it lasted another 3 or 4 years at that price.