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A handsome executive saloon with a twin-turbo diesel engine, the Peugeot 607 HDi 170 comes loaded with kit – and all of it standard…
Long black car with rakish good looks; ideal transport for a government agent – or assassin?
I didn't expect to like this car, but I did. Oh yes. I expected a squashily-suspensioned, underpowered automobile, which fulfilled the promise of the 607's low sales figures (just 1000 units a year in the UK) and left me feeling bored… and I was utterly, totally wrong.
You might think that a 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel engine won't have the necessary oomph to speed the 607's 1725kg up to 62mph, but it does so in 9.3 seconds – not as quick as some of its German competitors, certainly, but it reaches the stated speed with a gratifyingly torquey ease. The unusual thing about this diesel engine is that it has twin turbos, which means that meaningful torque is available from very low revs, which in turn means that you don't need to rev the guts out of the thing to get it to accelerate hard.
I pulled out of the drive on my first test route and a pumped-up hot-hatch bore down on me at a highly illegal speed. I put my foot to the floor and, despite the low revs and inappropriate gear, we simply gathered speed in one long exhilarating rush and disappeared from the hot-hatch's view. And what a view. For a large exec-mobile, the 607 has unexpectedly rakish good looks with a swooping body profile from nose to tail. I stopped to take some pictures and people drove past staring. The long black car suggested I was a government agent. Or an assassin. But despite its length, the car is wonderfully easy to drive: taut and powerful with a smooth gearchange and highly effective brakes.
The Peugeot 607 HDi 170 comes only with a 6-speed manual gearbox – there's no auto version – and that seems quite a brave thing for Peugeot to do if the car is genuinely targeted at the 'executive' market. But they've been even braver than that, for the model comes without options. Not a one. You can choose the exterior colour, and that's all. What this implies, quite correctly, is that the Peugeot 607 comes loaded with standard kit. For your £26,495, you get bi-zone air-con with climate control, tinted glass, Astrakan black leather interior, electric front seats and mirrors – with memory, a motorised boot, colour sat nav, GSM mobile phone, 6-disc CD autochanger, ultrasonic alarm, immobiliser, automatic locking, eight airbags and so on. No decisions to make, not even a thrashy auto gearbox to opt for, and to me that's a refreshing change.
That twin-turbo diesel engine is extraordinarily quiet (or, more probably, it has plenty of sound-proofing) but nevertheless when you get near the red line a muted roar emerges pleasantly from the engine bay. However, there is no need ever to approach the red line, again because of that tremendous torque, which gives massive flexibility in every one of the six manual gears.
Leather, sat nav, air-con – you name it, it comes as standard
The long, low profile does, perhaps, limit rear headroom but when I tried sitting in the back seat I was perfectly comfortable. And the boot is vast, opening remotely in less than four seconds via that as-standard motorised function. It's not only the rear I found comfortable, either; the driver's seat was excellent and (despite reports I've read in the press to the contrary) I found the controls well-placed and intuitive to use.
In short, the Peugeot 607 HDi 170 was not the sort of thing I expected of a big French automobile; it was vastly better. Sadly, history has shown the 607 to have astronomically poor residual values; but perhaps this will change? It must be largely badge snobbery that prevents the recognition of the Peugeot 607 as a possible alternative to its German rivals.
Source: NewCarNet.co.uk |
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