There's life in the old dog yet, perhaps. The three-box format of saloon cars (bonnet/cabin/boot) has taken a bit of a beating of late. Never the most innovative format, it's the car design that's quickly mastered by four-year-olds with crayons and paper.
But it has stood the test of time, carrying millions of us to and from work every day. However, change has been afoot in the car market in the last decade with the arrival of sleek but affordable four-seater coupés, roomy people carriers and great big Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), changing the look of the supermarket car park.
It's hardly surprising. Years of Ford Cortinas and Fiat Regattas were enough to break even the most die-hard car fan. When the new formats came on stream, customers rushed to their nearest dealers. Why opt for the traditional family saloon, when you can pretend to be a rugged outdoors type in an off-roader, or sleek and chic with your sports coupé? In this company, who wants to drive the motoring equivalent of a cardigan and slippers.
Car firms have only themselves to blame. They've lost their design bottle in one of the most important market segments. It's understandable given the billions of euro at stake. Yet they fell for the terrible vox-pop format. While sports car manufacturers build from the heart, too often mainstream models are designed by inputting great swathes of analysis and surveys on the motoring requirements of widget salesmen from Wexford. Passion has been replaced by predictability.
Even the designers seem to have fallen under the spell of the marketing svengalis. Over the past two years we've sat beside several car designers at various functions and listened as they've explained their thinking on particular mainstream cars. Too often we've encountered designers who've lost the traditional passion, replaced with marketing mumbo-jumbo.
Yet all not is lost. Certainly a big firm like Peugeot has its Machiavellian marketeers, busy persuading design departments to iron out any "controversial" looks. But the 407 suggests that there's some hope for the future of the three-box format.
Certainly there's no mistaking its lineage. The larger Peugeot badge gives it away - harking back to models in the mid-1990s - and the rear retains strong similarities with its predecessor. However the front has far more coupé styling, and there's a significant increase in front overhang, all giving the impression of a much larger car than it actually is: it's only three inches longer than the 406. This in part is due to the sweeping windscreen and long dash. Even the side windows carry a certain stylised slant.
Our test car was powered by the 2-litre Hdi, a common-rail diesel unit that now offers 136 bhp and 340 Newton metres of torque at 4,000 rpm, decent pulling power that kicks in relatively early. However, while that's always been diesel's forte over the top-speed performance of petrol versions, we would have our reservations about the strength of the entry-level 1.6-litre diesel model to carry its load. Though it's expected to be one of the best sellers in the 407 fleet and equals larger engines from competitors in terms of brake horsepower, we suspect it may be underpowered for this particular car.
As for the 2-litre, it cruises at motorway speeds, though its not as refined as competitors like Toyota's D-4D unit. Starting from cold it audibly reveals its oil-burning roots and needs a good run out to settle down.
As for build quality, the car seems well put together, though the shut lines on the boot were not as snug as we would have liked.
The interior of the 407 is spacious and the rear seats are capable of carrying two burly adults or three children, though they're not as comfortable as the front seats. One of the strongest features is the cavernous boot, capable of swallowing two or three large boxes without a problem and still offering room for plenty of shopping.
There are some sacrifices we have to make for driving on the left. Most notably, the handbrake is on the passenger side, even slanted to offer easier lift to the left-seat occupant. Then there's the black box of the automatic rain sensor, hidden behind the rear-view mirror on left-hand models but in the eyeline on Irish and British cars. The strong slant on the front nose means that the front end is not visible from behind the wheel, something that comes into play during parking.
For the long-haul travellers this new Peugeot is comfortable and refined, and we'd have no complaints traversing the country in the 407. From the driving seat you have all the amenities to hand, though the onboard computer system is over-complicated.
In terms of driving, the new Peugeot ably weaves its way on country roads. Peugeot used to pride itself on being one of the few firms capable of balancing the elusive comfort and ride criteria. Luxury cars generally tend to opt for comfort: the result is often rather woolly handling and ride. More racy models offer more direct and responsive handling, with the resulting jarring ride. The French firm was always good at getting a decent balance between the two, though in recent years it had seemed to let that slide.
The 407 comes with a strong list of features as standard, including several airbags and electronic stability control. It's on a par with the market leading Toyota Avensis. At entry level, prices are really competitive, though as you move up the model range the price differences begin to slim. Our model was the range-topping executive package, though we would not bother with this if buying ourselves, particularly to avoid the rather old-fashioned wood trim.
Instead we'd use the savings on a lower spec model to opt for the likes of cruise control and a CD changer. Cruise control is a must these days for those doing long miles on our growing motorway network.
The 407 is a very welcome addition to the family car range and manages to match competitors in terms of safety and equipment. Pricing is particularly strong at the entry end of the market, though less so as you move up in size. This car brings competition into the realms of styling, something that may yet rescue the three-box format from the doldrums and fend off advances by the SUVs.
Judging by the number of interested passers-by who cornered us at every stop, Peugeot has a winner on its hands. Its job now is to persuade the fleet market that it can offer Japanese reliability in conjunction with French flair.
