Fire up the... Peugeot Partner

A DOUBLE duvet, a mountain bike, and a pile of bags and boxes filled with household clutter. No, not the prizes of some awful Generation Game spinoff but a list of things Peugeot's Partner could swallow with ease.

Trips to the tip are the sort of missions where you'd want the generously-named Peugeot Partner Teepee Outdoor HDi 115 on your side; it really is family man motoring on a truly utilitarian level. Keen students of all things automotive will have already deduced it's the familiar Partner van with an additional helping of windows and seats, but if you're prepared to drop any pretensions of being sporty and go along with its load-lugging groove than you've got the perfect, er, partner. If you strip your family car requirements back to hauling five people and as much luggage as possible, then I challenge you to find a motor more geared up to the task then this one.

Stylish it ain't and it's a big thing, but the tradeoff is the simply enormous amount of room you get inside, and when you aren't using the faintly ridiculous amounts of headroom and legroom in the rear the back seats fold away and the Partner turns back into a van, offering you more luggage space than just about any other people mover for the money. True, the 1.6 version I drove will set you back £17,000 but while I don't think that's too unreasonable, there are plenty of other Partners in the range offering you the same amount of space for even less.

But the best thing about the Partner is that despite its van origins it doesn't alienate drivers who like their vehicles smaller and lower (me, basically). No, it's not going to inspire you with its handling in a bleak corner of Britain's countryside but it disguises its considerable bulk with a welcome dose of handling aplomb, and on the motorway it's a comfortable cruiser which isn't left wanting for turbocharged diesel punch. The only thing I'd ask Peugeot to give the Partner for Christmas is a sixth gear, to help improve the already none-too-bad 44mpg I averaged with it.

The Partner isn't a thriller through the corners or a work of art, but it isn't pretending to be. See it for what it is - a tool which dedicates everything at its disposal to moving people and things as efficiently as possible - and it's a belter.

It might be a van with windows, but I'm a convert

JUST call me Jean-Jaques and pass me a beret. This week, I've fallen for that most French of motoring institutions.

I know that the small-van-with-windows format is offered by all sorts of manufacturers these days - Ford with its Tourneo, Fiat with the Doblo and so on - but really it's the Gallic trio of Citroen, Renault and Peugeot who've made it a hit with motorists on this side of the Channel. Now, thanks to a week with a Partner as my partner, I can see why.

I've entrusted it with a several missions, including a trip to the tip to get rid of a few bits of household clutter simply too big for the Rover 214 to deal with, but the assignment on which it's impressed me most was conveying a carload of petrolheads to the NEC in Birmingham for last weekend's Footman James Classic Motor Show. Normally, this would be a job given to either my Rover or my mate's turbodiesel Saab 93, but it seemed almost rude not to use the big Pug instead.

Each and every one of us - a group of car enthusiasts who'd usually value the small, the sporty and the quick - left impressed by the Partner's almost ruthless approach to practical, family-friendly motoring. Up front, I loved the way it disguised its considerable bulk with its sweet handling, my turbo nutter, Saab-owning pal liked its mid range punch, and everyone else seemed slightly lost with the vast amounts of head and legroom.
In fact, the only real gripes were the popout windows in the sliding rear doors, which left them with a slightly stuffy feel on the long trip.

Admittedly, the boxy shape - especially in the delightfully Seventies shade of brown the car I've just tested came in - isn't going to keep you awake at night, and nor is it going to thrill you on the Buttertubs Pass, but I'm a small-vans-with-windows convert, because these things do the job they're designed to do brilliantly and unpretentiously.

Now, what's the going rate for a secondhand one?

Fire up the... Peugeot 5008

IT'S never fun driving in a downpour but trying it with six of your nearest and dearest in Peugeot's latest people carrier is going to be a problem.

The 5008, launched earlier this year, has a third row of seats which cleverly rise from the bottom of the boot, but if your friends try clambering into them they're going to find the plastic bar where the parcel shelf lives blocking the way. Remove it and you'll find that - as it's almost as wide as the car itself is - there's nowhere for it to live. So your friends and family are going to end up holiding it all the way home.

Head behind the seats to the boot itself and you'll find a luggage net designed to stop your shopping bags sliding about, but load something heavy onto it, for instance luggage, by mistake and there's every chance you'll break the flimsy plastic clips holding it up.

As flaws go they're fairly fundamental ones, but they're shared by similarly-sized rivals like Ford's S-Max and not enough to ruin what's actually a pretty and poised effort from the French car giant, who are determined to bridge the ancient 807 and the five-seater 3008 with something sophisticated enough to cut it at the sharp end of the family marketplace.

Both inside and out you get the reassuring feeling that the 5008's a family car with seven seats rather than the van with windows too many MPVs make the mistake of being, and despite offering acres of space it still drives and handles just as crisply as any of Peugeot's other models.

I'm not sure what sport they had in mind with the Sport version I drove, but the 1.6 turbo petrol engine pulled very well, and while it's not as openly engaging as the S-Max through the corners I preferred its emphasis being calm and comfortable. In fact, I wondered why you'd buy a turbo Sport at all, as it's a car born to impress as a diesel with an auto box.

The 5008's good looks are well worth looking into more, but it'd be better still with the annoying niggles sorted out.

As published in The Champion on July 28, 2010

Fire up the... Vauxhall Meriva Turbo

EVERYONE'S switching to smaller motors at the moment, and now it seems even Daddy Cool has downsized.

You might remember Daddy Cool as the star of a series of Vauxhall adverts from a couple of years ago, when an otherwise ordinary dad decides to demonstrate just how sporty his school run chariot can be by sticking some Boney M on the stereo and driving like his kids are late for school. It was fun at the time, but we live in an age of austerity now.

Daddy Cool's old Vauxhall Zafira GSI was a cracking people carrier but I reckon if he got revived in another slightly cheesy TV campaign he'd probably be driving the new Meriva, which in 1.4 Turbo form is probably the unlikeliest driving hit I've ever come across.

Whisper it quietly, but a car designed for the North Circular rather than the Nurburgring is an absolute joy to drive.

Vauxhall's second generation of the Meriva might be an upright MPV rather than a hot hatch but, particularly in the sporty Turbo spec, it has a manic sense of urgency, and is beautifully balanced on both the bumpy and the bendy bits of the school run.

It's also joined the select group of cars that have suicide rear doors, which sound dramatic but basically open backwards rather than forwards to make getting in a little easier. Mazda's RX-8 and the Rolls Phantom have pulled off the same trick in a bid to pull off spectacular rather than spacious, but on the Meriva it means you can get into an interior that feels very well screwed together a few seconds faster.

The Meriva's a small MPV and by definition not the sort of thing to set your pulse racing, but whoever made the Astra, Insignia and Tigra look so stylish has managed the same trick with what should be a be a boxy shopping wagon.

It's not the kind of car you want to warm to but the Meriva's magic stems from being a hugely practical and good looking little car which just happens to go like strink when you least expect it.

Daddy Cool, I reckon, would definitely approve.

As published in The Champion on July 21, 2010