PARTY ANIMAL
Eight-seater Peugeot Traveller is the ultimate ‘dad’s taxi’
THAT dead space between Christmas and New Year, where you can never remember what day it is, was neatly filled by the new Peugeot Traveller.
Not any old Peugeot Traveller, though.
Nope, the Traveller Allure with its body-massaging leather seats and mucho bling.
It turned out to be a fortunate test car, in that it’s got eight seats and my duties over the festive period appeared to be that of designated dad driver to transport offspring and their mates to various and numerous parties.
It’s not the “to” part that was the scary bit. It was the “from”.
What you drop off at a party might look like seven normal teenagers, glued to their smart phone screens, sparse in vocabulary, awkward in manner.
What you pick up at 4am is a quite different matter.
Thankfully, the Traveller comes with one of those convex, parental spying mirrors mounted just beneath the rear view mirror. This discreet device offers the nervous driver a full 180degree view of all that occurs behind.
This, coupled with a full panoramic sunroof to illuminate the interior with street light, alerts the driver to which occupant is the most likely to woof their cookies.
Bearing in mind the three seats in the very back do not have opening windows (or doors), this is useful.
I’ve sent test cars back with blood on the seats (explosive nose bleed) and dog poo on the over mats (damn you, Parisian pavements) but I have never sent one back full of vomit. Never intend to, either.
Thankfully, due to the early-warning convex mirror and my nervous vigilance, we could stop (just) in time to extricate the back-seat culprit and allow her to perform her road side expulsions – the Allure’s luxurious carpets and expensive leather trim, safe from damage.
It took me back a few years. When the kids were too young to expose themselves to someone else’s drinks cabinet, the enemy of family travel was motion sickness.
Thankfully, my kids didn’t suffer but there was always that flaky friend who got queasy the moment they took their eyes off the road ahead.
Nothing is more stressful than being behind the wheel with a child who may or may not explode behind you. I include fog-bound motorway driving at night, lashing rain and the bow waves of HGV spray, towing a caravan in gusting side winds and black ice in this consideration. Pukey kids are the worst. In this situation, smoothness is key. Brakes must be stroked with the delicacy of a feather, steering must be poured like cream and gears must be swapped with the soft-touch of a pickpocket.
It’s all quite easy in the Traveller. Direction changes have to be carefully considered as there is quite a bit of weight up-high but it’s all do-able if you put your mind to it. With split, zoned air-conditioning it’s also possible to have it icy cold in the back and toasty warm up front.
Until you have to select first gear, that is. Second to first is a notchy old affair. Maybe it was the fact that my test car had only done 700 miles and the linkage was a bit sticky? Whatever the cause, I did everything to avoid changing down into first gear.
So, with one eye in the spy mirror and one eye ahead, it’s fortunate that there’s a nifty heads-up display beaming all the crucial speed and sat nav info on to the screen ahead of you. The adaptive cruise control, blind spot mirrors and lane departure alert also give you less to think about when your mind’s really on the puking perils astern.
If this is an insight into taxi driving, you can keep it…but the Peugeot Traveller might just be the ultimate Uber vehicle.