03 Apr 06
Peugeot's media campaigns for the little 107 have made much play of that three-digit number. That's why they keep telling us that the 107 is '107 of a kind', or that you can arrange a finance deal that'll work out at - you guessed it - £107 per month. So when the boss asked me how big a trip I'd thought of doing for our long term Pug's final hurrah, I naturally suggested 107 miles. Makes me glad we don't have a 1007 on the fleet...
I left my house in Maidstone just after 9am and within a few minutes I'm in the 107's ideal habitat - heavy stop-start traffic. The 107's cutesy styling seems to pacify other road users who don't mind when I cut in front of them to change lanes. Within a few minutes I've blasted my way out of traffic and onto the open road, although decent progress is thwarted by the 107's biggest enemy - a hill.
Now by hill I mean a pretty substantial hill - namely Detling Hill, which will be familiar to anyone who's driven south on the M20 and wanted to cut across to the M2 or vice versa. A test of many a car, despite only standing 200metres high, it's pretty steep for a dual carriageway. And with an ultra-strict Gatso monitoring the 50mph speed limit at the bottom, you can't even get a decent run-up.
In fifth, the 107 struggles to maintain 50mph, the speed dropping gradually as the engine strains harder to haul the 107 up the hill. It'll make it, but dropping down to fourth and giving it a bootful of throttle keeps the ever-present juggernauts off your tail.
