Peugeot 807

Road test

There's a good reason why the Peuegot 807 is one of this year's Top Gear Car of the Year class winners - it's the best people carrier you can buy. A clean-sheet design that takes over from the long-in-the-tooth 806, the new car is, quite simply, brilliant. Apart from just one minor detail - which is that there's no reach adjustment for the steering column - I couldn't find fault with the new arrival at all.

Peugeot has made a real effort to make sure the 807 doesn't look like a van with windows, and as a result it's a smart looking motor. The cabin works just as well, with a clearly laid out dash that has a trio of funky-looking dials set in the centre. If anything there's too much information available, with yet more instrumentation on offer in a binnacle that moves with the rake-adjustable steering column and another digital display below the main one, which controls the climate control, sat-nav and stereo. The three main dials are also a bit confusing at first because you're not sure what each of them are for, but it doesn't take long to familiarise yourself with them.

The cabin itself is light and airy, with no centre console and a dash-mounted gearstick to keep the floor uncluttered. Our test car came with the triple sunroof option, with a glass panel above each row of seats. Each one is individually adjustable electrically and they can all be controlled from the driver's seat. But the option isn't cheap at £1,000, and if it goes wrong it'll be a nightmare to fix...

All the seats get three-point seatbelts and with the elevated seating position and ease of getting comfortable, there can be few ways of carrying seven people more comfortably. Of course there are more ways of setting the seats than anybody will ever need and as an added bonus, if you need to remove any of them, you can do so without much risk of hospitalising yourself because of their weight.

As well as all these fundamentals, there are plenty of neat touches incorporated into the 807's design. Cubby holes all over the place you can now take for granted, but things like the rear side doors which open and close electrically, from the driver's seat, rear passenger seats or key fob are really useful. The ventilation for each seat improves the comfort factor no end and when the car is locked, the mirrors automatically fold in to reduce the chances of them getting wrecked by passing traffic.

On the road things are just as good. That probably wouldn't be the case if a petrol engine was fitted, but with the excellent 2.2HDi unit fitted, there's plenty of torque on hand to ensure piloting an 807 doesn't become a chore. If you fill the car up there's only so much you can do to try to overcome the laws of physics in terms of handling, but the 807 does about as good a job as you can expect.

Time will tell whether the 807 proves to be well screwed together. If it isn't and they start to expire after they've racked up just a few miles, that'll be the only thing against the car. Sure it may be a major stumbling block, but at the moment it looks like the only potential reason for not buying one - and our test car did nothing to suggest that there would be any build quality issues.

Richard Dredge