Peugeot is trying these days to occupy every nook and cranny of what's known as the B segment. By the end of this year it will have four models in the same class - the forthcoming 207, the continuing 206, the little 107 (which to be honest strikes me as more of an A-segment car) and, least conventional of them all, the 1007 tested here.Perhaps this wide choice is just as well, because the word from the trade is that the 1007 isn't shifting. Customers take one look at it and walk away, but at least when they do that there's a 206 sitting nearby so they don't necessarily march straight out of the showroom.What's the problem? Peugeot describes the 1007 as "the revolutionary small car"; maybe B-segment buyers don't think much of revolutions. They certainly don't seem to think much of the 1007's looks. And if a minority get past that hurdle and start talking about deals, surely the pricing will kill most of them off.Very unscientifically, I asked various friends, neighbours and passers-by how much they thought the test car cost. I think the guy who said "£6500" was having a laugh, but without exception everyone else guessed in the £8000-£9000 range.Oh dear, no. Even the most basic 1007 has a list price in five figures. Without options, the 1.4 HDi 70 Sport is the second most expensive car in the range at £12,300. With options (most notably satellite navigation, phone capability, a 5-CD changer, metallic paint, parking sensors, an alarm, folding mirrors and a JBL audio system) the test car would set you back £15,150. This is top-end money for the class, and everything of comparable price is much more powerful.As Graeme Giles pointed out in his launch report, the 1007 is aimed at buyers aged between 35 and 54, who may be able to afford it - but are they also going to be the ones most likely to appreciate its odd design, or the fact that you can mix and match various pieces of velcro-attached trim?What you pay for is cleverness, and at first sight the cleverest things about this car are its electric sliding doors. They open up to reveal an exceptionally generous 920mm gap which even the most doddering 35- to 54-year old should be able to step through without assistance.Inside, there's a lot of space for front passengers and a decent amount for those in the rear (all the seats are adjustable) and visibility is excellent; the windscreen and rear screen pillars are substantial, but the quarterlight windows next to them are actually useful, which is not always the case.One criticism I heard about the 1007 is that "it looks like it's for disabled people". That sounded better than it reads, but it does raise a point about the large door opening. It means that the seatbelt mounting is a long way back, so much so that it was a struggle for me (a six foot three person) to reach it. I don't know how a smaller driver - presumably with shorter arms, and undoubtedly sitting still further ahead of the belt - would manage. Even for someone of my height, a stiff shoulder would mean asking for help.It's possible to drive the 1007 with the doors open, but various warning signals go off if you try it, and it's officially described as "extremely inadvisable". I can see why from another story about a 1007 which needed a wheel changed; the car was jacked up with the driver's door open, and once it was returned to earth the door wouldn't shut again. I wonder how much that would cost to fix?Peugeot didn't tell me that, as you've probably guessed, but this quote comes from the press pack: "If the door encounters an obstacle when closing, the safety auto-reverse system reverses the movement until the door is fully open." Well, never let it be said that CARkeys test procedures are anything less than thorough. I tried to shut the door on my arm and got away with it, but when my young assistant tried the same thing she yelped in pain and was later heard muttering darkly about stupid car design and cruel and unusual employment practices.We chuckled about it afterwards (well, I did), but it brought up a serious issue. If the arm of a fit, healthy adult can be gripped so tightly as to bring tears to the eyes, what might happen to the arm of a much younger and more delicate, or older and more frail, person? Or perhaps one of their legs? Or a neck?In other respects the 1007 seems safe enough, since it scored five stars out of five for adult protection in Euro NCAP crash tests. Less impressively, it managed three out of five for child protection and two out of four for pedestrian protection.At its worst, luggage space is risible at 178 litres, but that's with all the seats in position and the two at the rear as far back as they will go. As mentioned before, the position of the rears can be adjusted, and can also be folded and tipped forwards (though you have to move the front seats beyond the endurance of tall occupants to make room for this). One rear seat can even be folded over the front passenger seat, making the 1007 a single-occupant vehicle with a remarkable carrying capacity.The test car was a Sport, and therefore in the higher of two trim levels (Dolce is the other one). The extra equipment you pay for includes fancy bumpers, a chrome exhaust tailpipe, 16" alloy wheels, sports front seats, automatic wipers and headlights, air-conditioning, a smattering of aluminium about the interior (including the gearknob, which becomes agonisingly cold after a frosty night) and a few exterior trim upgrades. Where available, the Sport specification adds £850 to the price of a Dolce car.We were also given the only diesel engine in the range, a 70bhp 1.4-litre unit which does not exactly make the 1007 a road-burner. Still, I was very agreeably surprised by just how much fun this car is to drive. It grips well, the balance is excellent, and altogether it's far more fun than I expected it to be. The steering and brakes, in particular, are light but accurate, which also makes the 1007 splendidly easy to drive in town.And if you don't get much in the way of straightline performance, you do at least get good fuel economy. I managed about 46mpg over the whole test, but I spent a lot of time finding out just how jolly the car was on winding country roads. In more restrained motoring the official 60.1mpg seems achievable.But I'd want more reasons than that for spending so much money on such a small car. When I first heard about the trouble dealers were having as they tried to sell the car, my first thoughts were sympathetic ones - I wanted to think that there was a fine vehicle under there, if only people could get past the strange appearance. After a week of living with the 1007, though, I'm not sure that there is. Engine 1398 cc, 4 cylinders Power 70 bhp @4000 rpm Torque 120 ib/ft @2000 rpm Transmission 5 speed manual Fuel/CO2 64.2 mpg / 115 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 15.4sec Top speed 99 mph Price From £11616.00 approx Release date 18/07/2005
Our Rating
