GEM Motoring Assist has issued its annual autumn warning: ‘Stay alert, but don’t veer for deer.’
It’s solid advice wrapped in a slightly cheesy headline. The gist? It’s deer season, and they’re more mobile than usual, especially at dawn and dusk. Drivers are urged to slow down, watch for glowing eyes in the headlights, and resist the temptation to swerve.
So far, so sensible. But Miles’ attention was drawn elsewhere – to the Peugeot 106 XR lurking in the GEM stock photo. A fine slice of 1990s French tat, riding on black steelies, and proudly wearing the plate L614 RRW – pixelated, naturally, like a criminal's face in a local paper. MOT history shows it last passed a test a decade ago next week.
Which suggests that, like many deer crossing Britain’s roads, it didn’t make it. History doesn’t record how the 106 met its end, but corrosion on the offside rear wheel arch was noted as an MOT advisory in October 2015. Enough to seal its fate? Unlikely – perhaps 77,000 miles of hard use finally did for the 60bhp, 1,124cc engine.
That slightly under-inflated nearside front tyre doesn't exactly scream ‘well-maintained Peugeot’, does it? Oh deer, or something.
There’s something oddly poetic about that: two endangered species meeting on a quiet country road – one wild, one Gallic, both reminders of how fragile the everyday can be.
So yes, stay alert. Don’t veer for deer. And spare a thought for the fallen 106s of this world.
Filed under: Wildlife, French tat, and the quiet passing of time.
Grab your French Tat sticker here – and do your bit for endangered species.
Photo courtesy of GEM Motoring Assist, via Newspress and iStock.
