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Mom Mobile: Peugeot 1007

By on August 3, 2008

In the decade or so since women began taking over automotive design studios in Detroit and Turin, new cars have sprouted hooks for shopping bags, pockets for sunglasses and make up, and vanity mirrors incorporated into the driver’s sun visor as well as the passenger’s.

Peugeot’s latest foray into the so-called second car market may well be the zenith of a design philosophy that centers on the needs of not just women, but all parents. The 1007’s unique sliding doors are no mere gimmick, as anyone who has attempted to get a struggling toddler out of a supermarket cart and into a child seat will appreciate. The doors cannot only be locked and unlocked remotely, but pushing the correct button on the key fob triggers small electric motors that actually open the door for you as you approach. When staggering under the weight of a week’s worth of groceries and said toddler it is not long before you wonder how you ever lived without such an innovation. The combination of a high roof line with a low floor plan makes entry and egress from the rear of the car a doodle and in the tight confines of a supermarket car park doors that do not swing but glide provide more benefits than one might at first imagine.

How many times have you had to open your car door to retrieve change from a poorly designed car park toll gate? Now just imagine how much easier it would be to do this if your door slid back and away at the touch o a button instead of swinging towards (and often into) the offending toll machine. And those doors are cool too. In the week that I had the 1007 I never got tired of demonstrating the car’s party piece in front of street side cafes and on gas station forecourts. At the latter however I discovered that you can’t fill up with the passenger door fully open, as it obscures the fuel filler.

Innovative design does not stop at the doors however. All of the car’s seat covers, arm rests and cushioned cubby holes can be unzipped or unclipped and washed in a standard washing machine. The 1007 also comes with spare covers in different colors allowing owners to personalize the interior of their cars, or even match them to their outfits. Someone must have also noticed some parents’ dangerous habit of angling the rear view mirror so they can see their kids rather than the road behind. Behold, the 1007 has two mirrors, one for the kids and one for the tailgating truck behind.

The 1007 is spacious and airy, and a very comfortable place to be for three adult passengers, but it is not as nice to drive. The increased structural strength required to make up for the holes that the massive doors fill put the little car past the 1,500kg mark, which is far too much for diminutive 1.4 or 1.6 liter engines on offer to cope with.

Nevertheless it is still a Peugeot, and like its brethren, the 1007 corners better than you’d expect, given its heft. More importantly for the family-minded buyer though, that strengthened body, a bevy of airbags and a front end largely made of soft plastics (to protect jaywalkers, presumably) helped the 1007 score the European New Car Assessment Program (NCAP)’s highest-ever safety rating. That, along with those dramatic doors, makes up for a lot of foibles, and makes sticker prices starting at ¥2,000,000 seem more than reasonable.

About Justin Gardiner