The French have become world leaders in designing funky but practical, compact cars with loads of endearing features, and Peugeot’s new 1007 is the latest such offering, with two unusual features that stand out immediately. The first, the Open-Sesame electric sliding-door system, is brilliant, but the 2-Tronic five-speed gearbox excited me about as much as a bowl of cold oatmeal.
Let’s start with the doors. Pop the left or right button on the remote and the appropriate door slides smoothly back on runners, leaving a 920mm cavity for easy access. Slide the front seats forward and the loading of bulky items into the back is a cinch. The back seats have 230mm fore-and-aft movement, allow you to prioritise either boot space or passenger leg-room, and the seats can be folded flat to increase load area even further.
Less pleasing — for me, anyway — is the 2-Tronic five-speed sequential gearbox. This can be left in full auto mode or operated manually through two steering-wheel mounted paddles. There’s no clutch pedal, and gear changes are lethargic using either technique. The Smart Car and the Toyota Verso use similar systems and I didn’t like them there either.
I drove the Peugeot for a couple of hours and found that my irritation level dwindled as I adjusted my driving style to suit the car. Use a light throttle and don’t be in a rush and the system is at best okay. Try and drive aggressively and your blood pressure is likely to go through the roof. Peugeot Motors South Africa is considering expanding the range from the single model now available, and I think a manual gearbox version should be high on its shopping list.
The Peugeot 1007 — pronounced ”one thousand and seven”, they tell us, because some Ian Fleming character owns the double-oh-seven moniker — uses a 1,6-litre petrol engine that is good for 80kW of power and 147Nm of torque. The factory claims a top whack of 190kph, with 100kph coming up 12,6 seconds after launch. I felt that these figures were a little optimistic — probably because of the ponderous gear change.
The interior of the Peugeot is well appointed. The car performed outstandingly in Euro NCAP crash testing, scoring 36 points — the highest-ever scored.
Luxury and convenience features abound, and some of the nicer ones are rain-sensing automatic windscreen wipers, automatically activated headlights, height-adjustable driver and passenger seats and automatic activation of hazard lights during very hard braking.
A novel feature is what Peugeot calls the Cameleo concept. Owners can select from 12 different interior kits, consisting of vent covers, door and fascia panels, mats and seat covers, and change the interior colours of their cars within a few minutes.
The Peugeot 1007 is a fine little car that offers a lot for its R159 900 asking price. For disabled drivers who need easy access to wheelchair space the electric sliding doors and auto transmission make it particularly appealing.