Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £18,045 to £24,295
Distinctive styling, strong diesel line-up, pedestrian safety; good ride.
Rear seat and boot space, heavier than predecessor, complex electronics not a Peugeot strong point.
Combines high style with a hugely competent chassis and good all-round capabilities.
Peugeot believes that buyers of cars of this size and type are more concerned about style than they are about class-leading space. After all, you rarely see more than one or two people occupying the legions of Mondeo, 3-Series and Vectra company cars travelling our nation's motorways - at least during the working week.
So while the 407 has, from some angles, quite a stunning turn of style, there is subjectively less space in the back seats, and the boot is less voluminous than the old 406's. In return, you get gorgeously fluid lines and a front end that could be mistaken for something Italian and hyper-expensive.
The 407 comes as a four-door saloon, two-door Coupe and SW estate (see separate reviews for more on the latter two), and with engines ranging from the 110bhp 1.6 HDI diesel and 125bhp 1.8 petrol to the 205bhp V6 HDI.
It will sell well to company fleets, although private families should find it good value for money, too. Forget the practicalities, though: the 407's main appeal is that it is a more striking-looking alternative to the Ford Mondeo or Vauxhall Vectra.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Peugeot 407
wrote on 10 10 2007