Peugeot 4007 GT HDi 156 Review & Road Test Part 2

Part 2 of our review / road test of the Peugeot 4007 GT HDi 156

France is a beautiful and diverse country with great wines and great food – and it’s the world capital of style and fashion. So it’s a bit of a shame with all that style and flair on their doorstep that Peugeot chose to graft a completely incongruous nose on the Mitsubishi Outlander to turn it in to a Peugeot. Still, it does look like a Peugeot so in that sense they succeeded. Thankfully the big-gob Peugeot style is coming to an end. Not before time, but too late to help the poor unfortunate Peugeot 4007.

But the worse thing you can do in this job is judge a book by it’s cover. Yes, the nose on the Peugeot 4007 is pretty horrible, but looks are subjective. Look how many wives Salman Rushdie has had. And with my daily drive a relatively small Ford Fiesta I  love getting different cars to pull apart review/road test, so when I was given the Peugeot 4007 for the weekend I was happy to be driving something bigger – and with more power – than my little Fiesta.

The Peugeot 4007 with its 2.2 HDI engine is a lovely car to drive; it’s smooth and gentle and holds the road very well for the size of the car. It didn’t disappoint in that area. Although others in the office disagreed I felt it was a little slow when pulling away in first gear; it isn’t until you get in to second that i thought the car showed its torque and made up for the slow start.

As it’s a diesel I expected it to be a bit noisy, but I was surprised to how loud the engine sounded. So much so we nicknamed the 4007`The Beast`for its tendency to growl – in a far from tuneful way – whenever prodded. But an average of 35mpg from a decent sized 4×4 that will seat seven (at a pinch) does let you forgive a lot.

Under the body the Peugeot 4007 shares its chassis with the Mitsubishi outlander and the Citroen C-Crossover, which to my eyes are a lot prettier than the 4007. The 4007 on the outside is very ordinary looking with a very long snout and what looks like a very ‘cheesy smile’  grill on the front. Nothing jumps out to me and says ‘Wow, what a beautiful car’. However on the inside Peugeot have done a lot better, with a basic but smart and tasteful interior.

The 4007 is sold as having five seats with two small pull up seats in the boot. If you are extremely small and have no legs then you could sit in these seats, but I think even children would struggle to sit there for anything much more than the school run. But then this isn’t a people carrier, and they could well come in useful.

This all sounds a bit negative but really, it’s not. The 4007 has some great features like the split tailgate making loading shopping into the car very easy, the 2WD/4WD knob works a treat, it’s comfy to ride in and very pleasant to drive – just not too enthusiastically – and it all suits the 4007′s target market. As a family car it offers comfort, a far from poor drive, good load-ability and decent economy.

The Peugeot 4007 GT HDi 156 starts at £26,745, and once you start adding extras like Sat Nav and Bluetooth you’re looking at paying pushing on £30,000 – which is a bit steep. But you’re paying for the toys – you can have a 4007 for a lot less.

Overall the 4007 is a decent car to drive and very appealing to families with a one-car budget. It does a lot very well – shopping, school run, boot sale, weekend away – and even though the third row of seats are meagre they are great for sticking the kids’ friends in for a short trip.  Just try to judge the 4007 from the inside looking out.

It’s the best view.

Full Peugeot 4007 GT HDi 156 specification, data and price

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By Cars UK