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Shock
It’s different, it looks fun, it’s incredibly practical and it’s clever. Blimey, I never thought I’d be persuaded to say all that. How much has all this cost Peugeot? I’ll tell you later but I’ll warn you that I’m not cheap.
Once you’ve got over the shock looks and sheer size of the Rifter you step inside to a terrifically spacious vehicle that could easily double up as a van.
The boot is an impressive 3ft 4in deep but fold down the rear seats and it’s 6ft long. Add its impressive height and you’ve got a 6ft long 4ft high and 4ft wide box that’s capable of turning three trips to your local “reclamation site” (council tip) into just the one.
If you need more space, the front passenger seat provides that by also folding flat.
Got some extra long gear to shift? Don’t worry, the rear window also springs open at the touch of a button, which is great. The Rifter’s huge 4ft 2in tailgate means you won’t be struggling to get stuff into the car but if you did stumble on to a problem, it could be solved by sliding rear doors that offer loads (ha ha) more ways into the car.
From a delivery driver’s point of view – and let’s face it you could easily become one as the Rifter is 14ft 6in long and nearly 7ft wide – there’s an 8in deep ledge big enough for stacks of information sheets running across the top of its square-sided greenhouse of a front window that provides a fantastic view to the sides and the road ahead. The more I drove this successor to the Tepee the more I liked it. The interior is a no-nonsense mix of hard touch mottled black and grey, the bottle holders on each side are the same size as a Coke can and there’s a strange hole next to the circular auto gearbox control that could be for loose change.
Tray
The centre console is a near arm’s length long, and can be used as a lidded tray that’s ideal for a mobile phone, credit cards, addresses and all the paraphernalia that you’d lose in the ledge above the windscreen. Does road holding and performance matter? Not to Rifter drivers, but the 130hp diesel I drove has stacks of punch thanks to 300Nm (222lb) of torque, has remarkable handling and its soft ride conquers the huge bumps that act as sleeping policemen in France.
To say I loved the Rifter would be putting it mildly but two things have to change. Firstly, its dreadful name which could at least be a trendy Rifta.
Secondly, the bung I got from Peugeot to write all this nonsense – two glasses of wine and a packet of peanuts provided on our economy flight home added up to £12.60. ENGINE: TOP SPEED: MPG: CO2: