People pay silly money for cars. Really silly. Personally, I can’t see the point in spending much more than a grand on a car so I’m very pleased that an all-time favourite of mine has fallen into my ‘affordability’ price range.

That car is the Peugeot 406 Coupe – a car which goes down as one of the finest efforts of the Pininfarina design studio.

Cor, what a beauty!

Lovely isn’t it? An absolute triumph of simplicity. There’s not a line out of place and no gaudy details. Just clean, beautiful lines. They tried to repeat the magic with the 407 Coupe but just ended up with something ugly and inferior. The 406 instead references Vauxhall’s Calibra and says “we can do better.”

Basing the car on the 406 was a good start. Not an exciting car, but one with good handling, an excellent ride and a refinement that was lacking in a Cavalier or Vectra. The icing on the cake was the optional V6 engine though, a unit that delivers lusty performance and the sort of soundtrack that reduces a grown man to tears. I rate it as highly as Alfa Romeo’s marvellous V6 engine, though it falls down slightly against such esteemed comparison by not looking as beautiful under the bonnet. No reason for it to of course as most owners won’t even lift the bonnet!

Yes prices for this beautiful, competent machine are now falling below a grand. If that’s not great value, then frankly I don’t know what is.