19 Apr 04
Out on faster roads now, the V6 engine is pulling tunefully but the autobox isn't the smoothest. We then find a fast but ripply and undulating road, the sort of road once most common in France but nowadays more of a British topography. And the ride is really rather restless, lifting and checking and not being a Peugeot at all. I remember driving an adaptive-damper 607 V6 on its launch and wanting very much to get out there and then; this is better, but still pointless when Peugeot can do normal dampers so well.
As is proved when we try a 2.0 HDi turbodiesel, this time in leather Executive guise. Straight away the steering feels better-oiled, and there's less of a rubbery patch around the centre so you connect more quickly with the corner. And what a connection it is: the clever suspension does work, because the front wheels hang on and on, always ready to turn harder if the nose begins to run wide. The bite into a bend is remarkable, the unflappability immense. What is missing, though, is that readiness to alter the line according to power-on or power-off, a past Peugeot trait endearing to keen drivers. That is part of what made Peugeots feel alive and in tune with their pilots; there's some of that here, but kind of digitised and reined in to expunge the appealing impurity. Pity.
And yes, the HDI has a much better ride, filling in dips, slicing crests, calming and flattening the motions as a Peugeot should. The engine copes well with the bulk, too; it's no firebrand (11.0 seconds to 62mph, compared with 9.2 for the petrol V6), but it's relaxed and willing with its six-speed gearbox and broad torque spread.
Over lunch, suspension chief Jean-Michel Bouillet explains that the adaptive dampers are softer in their default, straight-roads setting than the standard ones so should give a better ride. When it was suggested that they clearly didn't, he cited the tyres. The V6 has 17in wheels, some lesser 407s have 16in wheels. So, for our final 407 drive, we tried a 2.0-litre petrol on the 17ins, with sporty SE trim to suit.
It rode very well. A little thumpy on sharp edges, yes, and that can be blamed on the relatively shallow sidewalls, but at speed on undulations it was the most Peugeot-ish of all - helped, relative to the HDI, by less nose-weight. The engine struggled, though, for all its 138bhp, needing to be revved through its boom periods to make brisk headway. A 2.2, unsampled by us, would no doubt prove a better bet.
