The Good:

Great engine, Snappy gearbox (DSG auto), switchable 2wd/4wd/lock, neat interior good fuel figures, drives like a car

The Bad:

The looks, front air vents easy to shut by accident, can’t hear the blinker,

Outside:

OK let’s deal with the elephant in the room, the 4007 is not very attractive. It’s just a bit wrong from every angle. There I’ve said it. You might or might not know that the 4007 is a slightly revised Mitsubishi Outlander. Sure the front and rear have been tweaked and the engine is Peugeot’s excellent 2.2 turbo but at some stage you have to look at it!

Now the hard bit is out of the way the rest is all too easy.

This is the mid-range mid-size SUV and is Peugeot’s first attempt in the mega-competitive softroader market. Rather than do all the work themselves Peugeot got a partner for the project. It saves a lot in expensive R and D so all they had to do was shove one of the own engines into it. You can have any engine you like as long as it’s the 2.2 turbo diesel. The gearbox situation offers a little more choice with 6 speeds in either a full manual or a dual clutch auto which was developed by Getrag. The dual clutch was the one fitted to our test car and actually wasn’t too bad. It’s easy to use and very smooth to boot.

There are some clever features like the 2 part rear hatch which is slightly reminiscent the Range Rover tailgate. When you open the main hatch there is a further section that can be folded down. It’s just the thing for a day of huntin or shootin or fishin and quite handy on a picnic too. You could also sit a well-muscled hunk on it while he takes off that nasty old wet suit. You don’t want water on your expensive new upholstery do you? Sorry, did I digress? To move on, the flat rear area has a smallish hatch into which the 3^rdrow of seats fit. If you don’t have the 7 seat option then you can stash your secret men’s business safe and sound. You know the kind of thing, stuff you don’t want your other half to find.

Inside:

I admit to slight disappointment at the interior which lacked the Peugeot je ne sais quoi. The knobs aren’t quite nice and the surfaces don’t feel quite the same quality as the current Peugeot range (207 aside). But apart from that it’s all there. The base model still has bluetooth and the audio system is OK but for nearly 40k I’d like something with more oomph. If you’ve been in a Lancer recently you’ll recognise the switchgear as it remains unchanged in the 4007. You don’t need to read the user guide to work the controls either. There are no surprises because what you see is what you get. Some auto makers think it amusing to insist that their buyers have a degree in advanced electronics just to turn the radio on but none of that here. It’s a simple flick of the wrist to do most of the important functions.

The centre console has the auto selector with sports button and a neat little lift out ashtray. As you know no one smokes any more. It took a little while to figure the gear selector out tho. The damned thing wouldn’t shift which could have been from a variety of causes, but in this case it was because the shifter needs to have the brushed aluminium collar lifted to unlock mechanism. The women out there will no doubt be asking why the manual wasn’t consulted, they should ask a man!

My only real criticism, and it is being pernickety, the same sensor used to turn on the head lights is used to tell the air con when the car is in the sunlight. If in auto mode the air cond gets a turbo boost which nearly takes your toupee clean off its tape. After a few days of this you get the pips and switch to manual instead which keeps the fan and temp at whatever you decide it’s going to be. Having said that, the air cond is super-efficient and even on a warmish day pumps out air of a chill sufficient to keep you high beaming all day. You have to watch the vents though because you might find you have shut the vent instead of directing the air away from your face which can be a trifle annoying. It might have been handier to have a knob to turn off the air flow instead of just moving

The (real aluminium) paddles shift the auto fairly quickly and the seats are fairly comfy. There’s nothing to offend in the inside and although I’ve already said the quality isn’t typical Peugeot it’s still ok. It’s neat and tidy and all laid out well. Everything falls to hand nicely and I like that.

The drive:

Surprisingly, the drive is good. It’s fairer to compare it to a another Mitsubishi 4WD than something form the Peugeot. Remember this partnership is designed to deliver a product that would otherwise not be available so snaps to the French car maker for being a bit daring. It sits on the road fairly well but like most SUV’s there is that slightly floaty feeling. In some of the serious off-roaders this feeling is so pronounced as to be decidedly uncomfortable and is like steering a bus.

I’ve already mentioned my blonde moment trying to find the release lever but once that was sorted out the DSG shifted smoothly. The steering was nicely weighted so that, at least on the road, there is lots of feel. It’s not a sports car but it isn’t meant to be, there is the delicious RCZ for that. Now, once you favourite hunk has his wetsuit stowed round back, he’ll appreciate grip (of the tyres on the road) especially in 4WD. Sure he’ll find the cornering in 2WD a bit lively, but he’ll to switch to 4WD while on the move to drive straight off the road and onto a grassy slope yesserreebob. Although there is also a lock, it would be churlish of me to suggest your recently wet-suited hunk could climb the side of Mt Everest. He might instead have more luck managing a small trailer for the Sea-Doo or a couple or dirt bikes. He would no doubt like the roomy boot for a shedload of camping gear. However this camping of which we speak is something he would be doing with someone else. My idea of camping is 3 to a bathroom at the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas not a 2 man tent in the middle of a forest with a bog roll and shovel passing for a convenience.

It’s worth noting the road was a bit greasy during out week with the 4007, and in 2WD the tyres frequently scrambled for grip. Switching to 4WD made the electronic nannies cut in less frequently but all in all it was still a very smooth experience.

The diesel can be a bit raucous especially under hard acceleration but mostly it’s very well behaved. I like this engine quite a lot. I mention this every time I drive a Peugeot diesel so bear with me, but I have quite a bit of experience personally with Pug diesels of old. I’m not mentioning names but Ryan X owned a 505 GTd that wouldn’t pull the skin of a custard which certainly isn’t the case with the 2.2

At cruise, unless you give that little “go” pedal a shove, there is scarcely a peep from up front. It’s quite eerie considering as are at the bottom of the SUV market.

At parking speed the 4007 is amazingly easy to manoeuvre. The driving position is high so the parking is a simple affair, unless you are one of those Paris-Hilton-Sunglass wearing soccer-mums enormous Paris-Hilton-Sunglasses. I’ll admit I probably wouldn’t have had such an easy time without the reverse sensors and were I to buy a 4007, I’d ask Messrs’ Peugeot, Peugeot and Peugeot to shove a camera in the package gratis. As my old dad says, if you don’t ask you don’t get.

Verdict:

Looks aside, it’s a good package for someone in the market for a compact to midsized SUV. The drive is fairly comfy and the economy is reasonably good so what’s not to like, especially if your wet-suited hunk says the 4007 is butch and sexy. It takes all kinds….