10:09am Thursday 18th June 2009
By Steve Teale
Peugeot has some history in the hot-hatch department. Together with Ford, it virtually created the concept in the 1980s.
While Ford turned out the incredibly successful XR2 and co, Peugeot had the 205GTi, which was faster, more desirable and a little more expensive.
More than 20 years later, the hot-hatch is back in vogue. And guess what? Peugeot is still very much involved.
Now it has several versions: principally the 207 GTi, which is a proper sports car, and the watered-down 207 Sport.
Here we test the latter version. The 207 Sport is a decent car with some sporty pretensions. It’s nimble, stylish and desirable, and while the 0-60mph time of almost 13 seconds won’t produce many screams, you may find it a more insurance-friendly proposition than a full-blown GTi.
What’s more, it will manage more than 70mpg on a run, which is outstanding. Even in town, you should get almost 40mpg.
So, for ‘Sport’ you’re probably better off reading ‘Fun’. All the trappings of a sports car are there, such as 15in alloy wheels and chrome exhaust trim. It has sports seats, leather steering wheel and gearknob, body-coloured door handles and side mouldings, plus aluminium-finish grille.
Rather than hot, this is more a warm hatch, for it goes very well and feels sprightlier than the figures suggest.
The 207 is highly regarded as a well-assembled, neatly-styled car with a quality cabin and very smooth drive. It starts with the Urban and goes on through S, Verve and Sport and on to GT and GTi, the real performance motors.
If you wanted to be critical, you could say the diesel versions have a firmer ride than the petrol models, and rear legroom is a little cramped; certainly tighter than some of its key rivals.
But few cars have the built-in quality that the 207 offers. If you really want more power and performance, then try the 110bhp version, which is only slightly more expensive but which cuts nearly two seconds off the 0 to 60mph time.
There are plenty of rivals to choose from in this sports hatch sector, with Renault, Vauxhall and Ford at the forefront, but in truth this model’s blend of excitement and sensible performance makes it a solid purchase.
Designed in-house by the Peugeot Style Centre, the 207 is a smart looking vehicle. It has a fresh, expressive style with a single air intake framed by large, sleek hi-tech headlights. The large front panel in front of the short bonnet is available in two different styles and can be combined with two styles of front fog lights.
The 207 is often in the top ten of UK car sales, and safety is a strong point of the model.
It has the highest overall score in Euro NCAP for a supermini of five stars for occupant protection, three stars for pedestrian impact protection and four stars for child occupant protection.
The 207 was also one of the first cars designed to meet the new European directive for pedestrian impact protection.
PRICE: £14,245. What Car? reckons you could get it for £12,878.
ENGINE: A 1,560cc diesel engine generating 90bhp. There is a 110bhp version too.
PERFORMANCE: Top speed 113mph and 0 to 60mph in 12.9 seconds.
COSTS: urban (town) 39.5mpg; extra-urban (country) 76.3mpg; combined 64.1mpg.
EMISSIONS: 117g/km.
WARRANTY: Three years, 60,000 miles.
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