Fire up the... Peugeot 5008

IT'S never fun driving in a downpour but trying it with six of your nearest and dearest in Peugeot's latest people carrier is going to be a problem.

The 5008, launched earlier this year, has a third row of seats which cleverly rise from the bottom of the boot, but if your friends try clambering into them they're going to find the plastic bar where the parcel shelf lives blocking the way. Remove it and you'll find that - as it's almost as wide as the car itself is - there's nowhere for it to live. So your friends and family are going to end up holiding it all the way home.

Head behind the seats to the boot itself and you'll find a luggage net designed to stop your shopping bags sliding about, but load something heavy onto it, for instance luggage, by mistake and there's every chance you'll break the flimsy plastic clips holding it up.

As flaws go they're fairly fundamental ones, but they're shared by similarly-sized rivals like Ford's S-Max and not enough to ruin what's actually a pretty and poised effort from the French car giant, who are determined to bridge the ancient 807 and the five-seater 3008 with something sophisticated enough to cut it at the sharp end of the family marketplace.

Both inside and out you get the reassuring feeling that the 5008's a family car with seven seats rather than the van with windows too many MPVs make the mistake of being, and despite offering acres of space it still drives and handles just as crisply as any of Peugeot's other models.

I'm not sure what sport they had in mind with the Sport version I drove, but the 1.6 turbo petrol engine pulled very well, and while it's not as openly engaging as the S-Max through the corners I preferred its emphasis being calm and comfortable. In fact, I wondered why you'd buy a turbo Sport at all, as it's a car born to impress as a diesel with an auto box.

The 5008's good looks are well worth looking into more, but it'd be better still with the annoying niggles sorted out.

As published in The Champion on July 28, 2010