Peugeot decided to tackle one of the most annoying problems of recent years in its history. The brand gathered specialized press in Madrid to publicly acknowledge the mistakes made with the PureTech engines and present the successor that aims to erase that bad experience.
For several years, the 1.0 and 1.2 gasoline engines used by Peugeot, Citroën, and Opel accumulated complaints due to repeated failures. Company officials admitted they made mistakes and took too long to respond to customers and workshops.
In Spain alone, nearly 500,000 affected units were sold among the three brands of the Stellantis group. Across Europe, more than five million engines were manufactured. This has a special weight in our country, where Stellantis produces several models in the plants of Vigo, Figueruelas, and Villaverde.
The brand closed 2025 with over 81,000 cars sold in Argentina and the region, making it an absolute priority to regain trust.
The Problems of the PureTech
One of the main defects was the oil-soaked timing belt, which degraded due to a chemical reaction. In short city trips, the fuel mixed with the oil, swelling the belt and generating fragments that ended up clogging the oil pump, causing serious breakdowns.
Additionally, in the first-generation engines, between 2014 and mid-2018, repeated cycles of cold and heat accumulated carbon deposits on the pistons. This led to excessive oil consumption. According to engineers, it wasn't so much about the total kilometers, but the quality of those kilometers, especially in intensive urban use.
Peugeot clarified that it was not a matter of cutting costs, but that the testing protocols did not consider the type of daily driving that predominates in countries like Spain, Portugal, France, or Italy. The wet belt was chosen in 2010 because it was quieter and had less friction.
The New Turbo 100
To close this chapter, Peugeot presented the Turbo 100, a 1.2 three-cylinder engine with 100 hp and 205 Nm that is already available. Although it looks similar to the PureTech on the outside to fit into the same models, it is almost completely new on the inside.
