| Road Test Peugeot 207 GT HDi 110 Three-door |
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Not So G(rea)T Peugeot fell one step short of providing a true turbo diesel hot hatch version of the 206. A 136bhp version would have been possible, and would no doubt have been quite something, but for its own reasons Peugeot restricted the car to 110bhp, making this a very warm hatch rather than an undeniably hot one. Calling it a GTi, as Peugeot did, was widely regarded as a mistake.
Something similar has gone on with the 207, though Peugeot has backed up off with the name. The 207 GT HDI uses the same 110bhp 1.6-litre turbo diesel engine, and the dynamic results are almost identical. The 207 is 0.3 seconds slower to 62mph than the equivalent 206, but its top speed is 2mph higher, and the newer car's combined fuel economy of 58.8mpg is too close to that of the previous one to be worth arguing about. There is, however, a big gulf between the two cars. While the 206 was genuinely sporty - even if not to the extent that the GTi tag suggested it might be - the 207 is less effective, more confused, and even less worthy of its GT tag. I'm not entirely convinved by the 207 in any case. There are undoubtedly good points; the Euro NCAP crash test results are exemplary, of course, and you can quickly see how much effort Peugeot has put into pedestrian protection in particular. Apply a firm hand to the extremities at either end and you'll immediately notice how bendy they are. The car will start to absorb some of the energy of a low-speed impact before serious damage has been done to the human being at the other end.
But I would have expected some of the 206's issues to have been sorted during the design of the new car. The front passenger has a great deal of room, but nobody else does; the driver's footwell is still quite cramped, and only an indent in the back of the front seats prevents even medium-sized rear passengers from being thoroughly wedged in.
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