Lean right into the screen, so that you are looking at the picture of the car so close, it is almost blurred. It looks bigger like that doesn’t it? Well, in real life it is even bigger still.
The design is an enigma. From some angles it looks like the bog standard saloon. From others it looks like an exotic super car. The front and rear three-quarter angles are reminiscent of some Ferraris. The design certainly grows on you; I found myself noticing more and more nice details each day, as will you if you buy one. Then, one day you will realise, you actually love (well, nearly love) this car.
From the driver’s perspective, the extraordinary leather sports seats make the drive feel special. The dashboard has a million little buttons, LEDs and LCD displays. This is a double-edge sword: You get the message that the car is loaded with equipment, making it great value, but it can be a little over-whelming and hard to find things. Especially if you are at that age where you kind of need glasses but get by OK without.
You can cruise very happily for hours and hours in this car and it remains confident and impressively quiet. This car is so refined, in fact that, you feel almost detached from the cruising experience. It’s like someone else could be driving.
Another reason to consider this car, if you like the ‘Grand Tourer’ driving experience, is its range. The enormous fuel tank and good MPG mean I was able to go to Avonmouth from London and back again, to Windsor and all round London and never needed to fill up.
When really driving the car, on B-roads and the like, the gear lever has a firm spring that makes quick short changes enjoyable. But it is also very easy to go from 1st to 4th, rather than 2nd gear. This is embarrassing and it’s not something you learn to drive around. It is more something that will happen every time you are tired.
Back in town, every manoeuvre takes a few moves more than you would like and parking almost requires a degree in trigonometry. Suffice it say, I failed, scraping not one but two alloys in a week.
Despite all the glass, that gives the cabin such an airy feeling, there are a few blind spots. I frightened a bus driver because of one and blame my drop in parking form on the others.
Driving down the multi-story car park exit at Heathrow is like going down a helter skelter; I really wasn’t sure which side of the car was most at risk of clipping a kerb, because I couldn’t see any of them, such is the size and shape of this beast.
But don’t start to think of this car as impractical. You can get 2+2 adults in, the boot is enormous and even in rush hour in deepest London, it wasn’t impossible to park or move around.
With the ‘extraordinary’ seats, sat nav, air conditioning, electric-everything and whopping, super-sexy alloys, I was expecting this car to be expensive. It certainly feels expensive. I was looking forward to a deep belly laugh at how people have wasted House deposits on a car that is often mistaken as a standard saloon.
But the automotive-snob in me was denied; you can buy a new one of these for just £22,240. Better still, you can buy a one-year-old version for £17,601 (the 2.0 diesel engine in the test car only went on sale in November 2007).
Or there is the 2.7 litre diesel engine that has been out since 2006 and is now down at about £10,000 to £12,000 - as are the 2.2 litre petrol-engine examples.
In fact, I think the Peugeot 407 Coupe has to be one of the best value cars in the UK right now. You should test drive one for that reason alone. If you are planning to keep the car for more than two years, the enjoyment you get from it will out weigh the depreciation.
If you are planning on keeping it for just a year, you should probably buy one of the early 2006 petrol engine versions, rather than a 2007 or 2008 model, so that you minimise your depreciation costs.
Summary
An attractive, large GT car that crunches miles in quiet comfort – and with some panache. Much more exotic and enjoyable to live with than a first glance would make you believe. Terrific value as a used car.
Test car details:
Peugeot 407 Coupe Sport Hdi 136
OTR £22,240
MPG: 47.8
0-62: 10.1 secs
CO2/KM: 156
Words: Matthew Tumbridge