Peugeot 206

The Peugeot 206 is a supermini car (B) engineered and produced by the French car manufacturer Peugeot since May 1998.
It was officially launched in September 1998 in hatchback form, which was followed by a coupé cabriolet (the 206 CC) in September 2000 for the 2001 model year, a station wagon (the 206 SW) in September 2001 for the 2002 model year, and a sedan version (the 206 SD) in September 2005 for the 2006 model year.
In November 2006, the Chinese joint venture Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën launched a derivative version of the Peugeot 206 known as the Citroën C2, but not technically related with the European-market model.
Its facelifted version was initially launched in South America in September 2008, and in China in November 2008, in hatchback, sedan and station wagon body styles, and known as the 207 Compact, and as the 207 respectively. This version was subsequently launched in Europe in February 2009, only in hatchback form and marketed as the 206+.
Even though the 206 had finished production in most markets by 2010, in Europe it was available as the 206+, with front and rear styling that resembles the Peugeot 207, until 2013, whereas in South America it continued to be offered under the 207 Compact nameplate, until January 2017, and furthermore in China, both under the 207 nameplate and as the Citroën C2.
The 206 is the best-selling Peugeot model of all time with 8,358,217 cars sold in 2012. Until 2016, the Peugeot 206 was still in the top 10 of used car sales in the UK comparing to other new models from other brands.
The 206 was introduced in May 1998 as a replacement to the Peugeot 205, and itself was replaced in April 2006 by the Peugeot 207, the nameplate spanning nearly 8 years of the car.
Overview.
Project.
During the early 1990s, Peugeot decided not to directly replace the Peugeot 205, citing the reason that superminis were no longer profitable or worthwhile. Instead, Peugeot followed a unique strategy and decided that its new, smaller, supermini, the Peugeot 106 (launched in 1991), would take sales from the lower end of the 205 range while the lowest models of the Peugeot 306 range, launched in 1993 to replace the Peugeot 309, would take sales from the top-end 205s. Between the 106 and 306, Peugeot hoped that the 205 would not need to be replaced, and could be phased out slowly, while customers who would normally plump for the 205 would continue to have a choice with either a smaller or larger car. This strategy did not work. With the 205 phased out, other superminis like the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo continued to sell well and increased in popularity, and without a direct competitor to these cars Peugeot was losing sales fast. A new supermini was required, and the 206 was launched in 1998 as a somewhat belated replacement for the 205. The In-house team lead by Peugeot's Head of Design, Murat Günak, and designer Gérard Welter,<ref>