CONSTANT COMPANION
Matt Allan finds Peugeot’s seven-seater fitting neatly into everyday life
The 5008 is a car that’s easy to take for granted – but in a good way. After initially wowing me with its modern fabric and metal interior and the smart i-cocipit driver display, it’s now just become an integral, undemanding part of everyday life.
Whether I’m driving to work, moving furniture or schlepping across country to a car launch, it’s always just there, willing and able to get on with that day’s tasks.
That might sound like I’m damning it with faint praise, but being able to just get on with the daily rigours of life with ease is what family cars should be about.
Central to that ease is the impressive practicality offered by the three-seat arrangement in the middle row.
Trying to access the third row of a seven-seater when you’ve got young kids can be a nuisance. You either have to remove one of the child seats from the middle row to allow you to slide and fold the car seat or you send your offspring in via the boot – neither’s ideal on a day-to-day basis.
With the Peugeot, you can position three child seats or three full-size adults side by side, and thanks to the flat floor, flat door sills and wide opening doors, getting everyone in and buckled up isn’t a chore.
Okay, it’s not the sort of feature to set pulses racing, but it does help keep blood pressure down on the school run. And not even massive beasts like the Ssangyong Rexton are as accommodating in that middle row.
Other parts of the interior are slightly less impressive. There’s a weird and annoying gap between the boot floor and the rear of row 2 that even quite large items can get stuck in. And the seats, while not uncomfortable, start to feel a little narrow and a little firm on longer drives.
Some of the 5008’s technology has also started to irritate. The gesture control bootlid for a start. When it closed unexpectedly on the delivery driver’s head I put it down to a mistake by him ,but it has since done it to my wife and my eldest child. I think it’s to do with the placement of the sensor under the bumper, but it’s the only such system I’ve ever had this issue with. and as a result I’ve turned it off.
The lack of physical controls for the heating system is also an annoyance that verges on the unsafe. Having to go through a series of button presses to turn down the temperature or adjust the fan speed simply isn’t progress.
But the overall experience remains a positive one.
The 1.5-litre engine is proving refined and torquey while returning high-40s economy on a mix of commutes, school runs and cross-country journeys.
The 5008 is also pleasant to drive. The tiny steering wheel takes a little getting used to, but it offers surprisingly quick steering and the gearshift is short and slick.
Add in an easygoing balance of composure and comfort whether you’re crawling through a city centre or pressing on along an A-road, and it’s easy to see why the 5008 is so easy to live with.