THE best-selling 206 supermini is in for a second lease of life when the car that replaces it goes into the showrooms next year.

Instead of killing off the 206, Peugeot is planning to re-launch its long-running model alongside the all-new 207, to be rolled out in May.

In its next guise, the car that was Europe’s top-seller in its class for five years is set to provide the French firm with a rival for examples of old-generation Clio and Punto models.

A spokesman said: ‘Renault and Fiat have carried over their previous supermini ranges to compete with Korean imports and we are keen to respond to challengers like the Hyundai Getz and Kia Rio. Keeping the 206 means we can field four different product lines to provide customers with the biggest choice in small cars.’

Wearing Urban and Verve badges, the second-time-around 206 is to be offered in three and five-door form and will come with either petrol or turbodiesel engines of 1.4-litre capacity.

The Urban is expected to cost under £7,000 and the Verve, with air conditioning and alloy wheels as standard, less than £8,000.

The spokesman added: ‘The new 207 will be bigger and better than the 206, but we think the old car will still win a lot of interest with customers on tight budgets.’