What do you mean, it doesn’t drive itself?

Premium pricing means we’re expecting a lot from our high-spec seven-seater. By

YEP, THAT IS indeed how we take the car-to-car shots that often grace the pages of CAR. Crazy, you might think. My view: just don’t think about it… We’re harnessed in, so we’re a safe load and shouldn’t fall out.

Why are you looking at a picture of me hanging out of the boot of a Peugeot 5008? After a previous stint on CAR designing pages, I’m now one of the magazine’s regular photographers – so regular, in fact, that CAR has asked me to run a long-term test car. I do a lot of miles in a lot of different places, often having to keep up with some pretty rapid cars. I need to carry a heap of gear – and hang out the back on occasion – not to mention the demands of a young family when I’m not at work. So one way or another this 5008 is going to get thoroughly tested.

We’ve gone for the high-spec GT diesel. Ours is a 178bhp 2.0-litre four with a six-speed automatic transmission and front-wheel drive. Some fiddling with Peugeot’s UK line-up means the GT-spec 5008 with that engine will soon have an eight-speed auto instead of our six-speeder.

It’s a seven-seater, with a good-size boot even with the removable third row in place, but the on-the-road price of £36,215 still seems on the high side. But then you look at the long list of standard safety, comfort and in-car entertainment features and it starts to make sense. The GT comes with the panoramic glass roof, full leather (on all seven seats) and multi-point massage function (only on the driver’s seat, to the annoyance of my wife).

We’ve also added a few extras. Choosing metallic Nimbus Grey paint adds £525, the Focal hi-fi system adds £590 and the Visio Park 2 system (360° camera with Automated Parking Assistance) a further £450. That takes this car’s price to £37,780. That’s raised a few eyebrows, so we’ll be keenly assessing the car’s value for money over the next few months.

Having read about Anthony ffrench-Constant’s time with the Peugeot 3008, documented over six rollercoaster months in these pages, it’ll be interesting to see if the 5008 is essentially a bigger version of the same mixed bag. I suspect not; initial observations are extremely positive.

The 2.0-litre diesel provides enough power to make the seven-seater a genuinely fun drive; get it flowing on a B-road and it’s a riot. The i-Cockpit is mostly good, in that the design is impressive and so’s the quality of the materials used. But let’s reserve judgment until we’ve clocked up a few thousand miles and seen how the fit and finish cope.

As I write this first report the car is already back with Peugeot, having a faulty electric boot repaired. The silver lining to that cloud is that its temporary replacement is another 5008, a 1.2-litre PureTech petrol in entry-level Active spec, giving me the chance to compare my car to a version that costs £10,000 less. I’ll let you know how that works out.