A very underrated car. We have it as a sport with 110 hp, a panoramic roof, automatic climate control and a JBL stereo system. The car is fast, comfortable and incredibly practical (seat colors and air grills can be changed). In addition, even then the safest small car in the test with 7 airbags (even the driver's knee airbag). And a very good sense of space.

Here in the Netherlands mostly elderly people bought it, for the high seating position and ease of access. And they had the money 😉

It always amazed me that sliding doors on passenger cars never really caught on, less chance of dinged doors in the supermarket car park, easier to load kids into child seats unobstructed by a traditional door. And they can be reliable, manual sliding doors on vans get used and abused all day long and last for decades

As someone who craves quirky french mini MPVs from the early 2000s, this pretty much spot-on for me. Adore it!

A light blue one with slightly faulty doors for you to fix would make a good friend for TWC.

Memory tells me it was designed as a city car mainly for Paris where parking is impossible.

My dad has one of these. In exactly the same color actually, he calls it his golden chariot! He has reduced mobility so getting in and out of cars is hard for him. The sliding doors and high seat make it perfect for him. There is a fun warning under the sunvisor warning you to lock the car when going trough a car wash! The brushes can activate the doors and open them..

Owned one for a couple of years and it never skipped a beat. No issues with the doors, they just need lubrication and making sure crud was kept out of the tracks. Being able to swap the washable seat inserts and dash tops was also clever. And the passenger seat does fills flat for use as a desk.

I have to say that I owned one of these from 2015 to 2017 in the 16 valve 1.6 Sport incarnation. Apart from the relatively atrocious fuel consumption it was quite a nice car, and one I wish I hadn't had to get rid of. Sadly for some time fuel consumption has trumped almost every other consideration for us, leading us eventually to our current daily driver of a Honda Insight, but for what it is worth I actually really liked the 1007.

I used to drive a Bedford CF van with sliding doors. Great fun in the summer, loads better than air conditioning, and only slightly marred by items flying out of the cab when negotiating roundabouts. (flasks, stationary, yorkshire terriers, etc)

I reckon that these would be a great use to the many independent delivery drivers there are today. Disable those warning devices and drive with the door open. :) When I was a kid, I helped my dad on many a milk round. I have fallen, at low speed, out of a Transit, Sherpa and CF with sliding doors. Damn vinyl seats. :)

Got one of these because it is French 🤠 FYI, the doors are not as iffy as reported. Most of the time it was operator error or lack of knowledge to maintain/repair or even just set (factory) them. The concept was nice and new(ish) yet the mechanics weren't instructed in time to "repair" those.

There used to be 3 of them on my road!! Only 1 in that burnt Orange though, all driven by retired ladies. I think Smith & Sniff were talking about them a couple of weeks ago on their Podcast.

This one will become a future classic, if you have one cherish it. I quite like it and the color is magnificent. Nice to see Peugeot going for something different than ordinary. A lot of space in a rather small car. I am all for it.

I've always seen them as transport for the elderly. Which was Peugeot's image in general at the time.

We had a blue 2006 1.6 sport one of these with a tiptronic gearbox until 3 weeks ago, we had it 6 years without issue until recently. Fantastic car with loads of cubby holes and storage space in it. My wife has limited mobility and the high driving position and automatic doors was perfect for her. I once parked the car in front of a shop and on the way back to the car I opened the doors of the car as i approached. Just then a woman came out of the shop carrying two shopping bags and she stood there with there mouth open in surprise as the car in front of her just opened the doors and she didn't know why. 😀 Sadly we had to sell as both doors refused to open and the controller was difficult to source, it won't get easier to replace as time goes by so we made the decision to let it go. The only "fault" was the fuel economy which was terrible but my wife loved the thing, it was an cool car in many ways. We replaced it with a Nissan Note which we will not be keeping for long, horrible thing, it's like driving a dishwasher by comparison. Just to note that the 1007 was intended as a city car so it's got a low gear ratio for nipping about town, on a motorway it always feels like it needs another gear because it does.

I always get a tinge of excitement when seeing that Ian is doing a car review as no one does it with better knowledge or humour. This review does not disappoint 🙂

"All that non sense that we apparently need", so true. In addition to the automatic sliding door, 1007 has so many windows which made it look interesting but expensive to manufacture. A precursor to modern SUV/MPV with it's ride height and easy access for front seats

I have one, and I love it! Everybody drops their jaw when they see the doors 😂 If you don’t expect too much from it, it is perfect!! I call it lunchbox… 😂😂

Some years ago i drove in Copenhagen. It was rush hour. Heavy traffic, but it was moving at a reasonable speed. I was driving beside a little old lady in a 1007. Suddenly the fancy sliding door opened in the driverside, apparently by itself. I looked at the lady and she was in total panic. Luckily my lane was moving faster so I could get away. The fate of the old woman and the car is unknown to me.

I don't think I've ever seen one of these, but according to the 'How Many Left' site there were only 2,255 on the road at their peak in the UK in 2007, with about 1000 still licensed or sorned.

They should have focused on the mobility scooter market, with a tailgate that opens as a ramp and removable seats to accommodate either a mobility scooter or wheelchair in the back. There are grants and international markets including the USA. Production could be outsourced to a contractor, for example Magma, with the car a 'halo' product showing that Peugeot cares about the customer, regardless of how able bodied they are.

My brother in law had one it was funky and a nightmare the doors would open and close by there self at night the worst thing they did was open at 70mph on the motorway

In french, we named it the PEUGEOT "one thousand seven" (as you said)

My boss had one of those back in the days. It was bright yellow, the same color as the mail boxes. One day someone found a big magnetic postal badge saying "I drive for the postal service" and placed it on his driver's door. 😂

My friends gran had one and loved the door. Even if it's a horrendous car, I like that she enjoyed it

That anteater driving position with the distant windshield and front seats in the middle of the wheelbase is very much like GM's Chevrolet Lumina/Pontiac Transport/Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan triplets of the late 1980s. I think it's fair to say the Jeep Grand Wagoneer had conclusively proven that consumers did want a luxurious four by four long before Land Rover thought of it.

That was the last car my late wife owned was one of those. Hers was the same colour as well. Oddly there’s a silver one abandoned a few miles away from here, l pass it sometimes when l go shopping lol

I owned one about seven years ago. A 1.4 turbo diesel. It was the worst and best car I have owned. It always put a smiles on my wife and I's faces and always got comments from people. The main problem was a slipping clutch which had to be replaced then it developed a problem with the traction control which was traced to a faulty abs unit which wasn't economical to repair. I ended up trading it in against another a quite a loss . I believe in France it was purchased by the younger trendy population. In this country it was the older generation because it was very easy to get in and out of. It was a very heavy car as much as a Mondao.

I remember when I first saw one and it was a combination of 'that's cute!' and 'that's strange!' Plaudits to Peugeot for trying something different. Oh and that's one of the most impressive "ptchooooo!s" so far!

Great review 🙂👍 I was working in the dealership in sales when this was new. The 206 had been out for 7 years or so. The 1007 was much more expensive, much heavier, slower, worse on fuel, worse handling, 4 seats instead of 5 and a smaller boot. Plus less pretty. They lost 15k per car if I remember correctly. So, the worst car Peugeot ever made. But now I think that makes them kind of cool in a quirky way. Ps.Not quite so easy to buy a powerful model. It never got the 1.6hdi. 1.4hdi only and the 1.6 petrol only came with the awful automated manual. So 1.4 16v manual or 1.4hdi with a remap is your best bet. Pps.205 xs was twin choke single carb. Ppps. Worth mentioning that all the trim parts and seat inserts could be swapped and you could buy packs of different colours. They sat on a stand in every dealership untouched for years!

First time I've seen one of these and I finding it oddly nice.

I think driving along with the doors open, it mimics Asterix the Gaul’s helmet lol

The coloured rings around the vents, mats on top of the dash and the inner cushions are changeable, Peugeot dealers sold them in different colours.

The TU series engines were fine in 106, 205s etc. but couldn't cope with the extra kerb weight of even a 206. This has double the additional mass, so must be desperate. I guess Ian's complaint about buzziness at motorway speed is because Peugeot tried to counteract the weight penalty with the gearing.

A French car with a James Bond connection. The sliding doors could also be considered somewhat Bondesque. Great little car, something of a pity that it never made its mark in a Bond movie. Could have been a great marketing opportunity.

friend of mine has one and set it up for lapping the nurnburgring.he has the 1.6 petrol one with a lot of engine work done,cams,valvesprings and so on.lowered as well with huge brembo brakes on it.im pretty sure he has done a couple of hundred laps with the car and a couple of hundred more himself.ive done a couple of passenger laps with him and i can tell you its pretty scary,he set the car up really well though its just scary cause you dont expect that kind of handling on a car like that

I actually considered this car once, for the sake of uniqueness. Now I found 7 available in Finland, prices ranging from 1.6k€ to 3.5 k€. The most expensive one has that sweet color, the rest are boring dark blue or silver.

With doors like these, and an ability to drive it with doors open, it would make quite a good car for gangsters in the Al Capone era :D. More seriously, though, I think that this door design make it just about the most convenient car to get in and get out of for the elderly or for people with some motoric disability. The access seems absolutely fabulous!

I happen to like this! Ingenious design. I must say that electric sliding doors on minivans do have similar issues, ie opening at random times, not closing, etc., so it is not relegated to this specific model. The engine sounds beastly, that clattering, which almost sounds like a diesel, would annoy me. Oh, and on minivans, whilst in gear the door warning beeps excessively, I know since at one time we did own a GM minivan, which were the first in the US to offer an electric sliding door. Yes, I'm in the US, and Peugeot left our market 30 years ago. I think its failure is due to poor market as well as design and execution. Despite all that, I think it is a lovely vehicle that looks quite modern!

I like them. Peugeot may have lost a lot of money on them but they are interesting. If a car company takes a chance on a new concept that captures the zeitgeist, like the Mazda MX5, they hit the jackpot. In the fullness of time the 1007 may become rare and collectable.

On the design - the doors are the rears off the C8 turned round, they had those plus the engines and the platform so all it needed was a body and no-one has complained about that. A shame it didn't sell. Great review.

Nice colour of the Peugeot, Ian. I've got a Ford C Max Grand, that has rear sliding doors, like the B Max, whereas the ordinary C Max doesn't. The first MPV I saw with sliding rear doors was the Mazda 5, a company that has several ties to Ford.

As soon as I saw those doors my first thought was, can you drive it with them open? you can! Lol. A car of interest and disappointment. Nice camera work Miss HubNut 👍

This has definitely been a gap in the HubNut catalogue, that I’m very pleased to see filled. I thought it was going to be awful, and I’m glad it isn’t! I quite fancy one now, as a bimbling car. As for the intended buyer, I could see middle class French or low-countries retirees, maybe as the second car. Obviously the less agile driver would appreciate the doors. Possibly even selling it to Parisian fashionistas on its elegant ingress & egress at the kerb…. Who knows, but it’s like someone was anticipating that there would be a Hubnut.

I think the white vent surrounds and dash mats you can change on these to different colours. Great video Ian, thanks.

Yay!! Thanks for this video and your expertise Ian. Been waiting for this to come through your channel for ages.

It truly looks like a little van. It's kind of cute.

I had a red 1007 on 07 plate. It was a lovely car to drive, the doors were exquisite; but it was underpowered, especially in 2nd gear. That's the only downside.

I have one of these , it's my Dad's I bought it for him after he had hip replacement surgery and when it was found he could now walk again easily, my local council took away his disabled parking badge. With this he could park in any space and not worry about fully opening the door. I've just got it back on the road after the pandemic made Dad not able to go out and drive it and it got left to stand. His has the 1.6 engine and the dreadful semi automatic gearbox, and to top off the embarrassment its bright yellow. (its fun to drive though), if you can deal with the gearbox.

I had one, this brought back so many memories of it, I miss having it but it was rubbish to drive. The interior was great to sit in for two people as the Bach seats are small. The doors never went wrong.

Excellent Review as always, there is one round the corner from me in this exact same colour and I honestly think it's a funky wee thing even if it was a white elephant back in the day!

I always thought these were made for old people and people with disabilities due to the doors. The whole purpose must have been to be able to get easily in and out.

Maybe more suited to the elderly, restricted mobility customers and occasionally ferrying the grand kids about? I remember seeing a seatbelt retrieving strap in one of mums special oap catalogues. One of my favourite pschooos ☺.

This brings back memories of a Ford Transit I drove in the 70's with front sliding doors. In the summer I drove with the doors open all the time to get some airflow into the cab. Fine around town at slow speeds, but over about 40 mph anything loose inside the cab blew out onto the road.

Hi Ian. A thoroughly marvellous video. I always like a peugeot review many fond memories of a few summer jobs working with my dad at a peugeot dealer. i had a 1.4 tu in my 106 and a 1.1 in my ax great engines. ps thanks for my merch. good times.

few years ago when out working on the street i heard someone shouting they couldnt get out of their car .just a regular car too .turned out theyd still got their seat belt on!

I had lots of memories in a basic 1.4l petrol 2005 1007. My mother and sister shared it, I learned to drive in it. I could say lots of good and bad about it, but I miss it. Also, make sure not to lose the keys because apparantly when my folks did, the replacement malfunctioned the doors which couldn't operate by that remote key. Couldn't pass the NCT because of it, even when it had plenty of life left in it

There's a household near to me that has THREE of these 1007's in their driveway. Not sure whether this speaks volumes of said household or the car itself.

The 1007 is like a concept idea that sounded great but in reality I don't really see much point of it apart from being different and a spacious 2 seater car. Having learned from this video that it's based on the 206 platform (noticed the mirrors are the same as my 206), it seems to make more sense to get a 206 as a better all rounded car and a better use of space.

My girlfriend who owns the family owned Peugeot 307 from her parents uses it as a daily driver and is equipped with the TU5 1.6 16V engine. I must say that engine is really really very omnipotent. Quite low down torque for easy cruising, and as soon as you give it the beans, it does pull and pull and happily revs all the way through. The typical chunky gearbox/synchros are becoming a thing now as the car is approaching 100k miles.

Some German guy once told me they are called elephant cars up there because when you open the doors it looks like elephant ears 😂

I worked for a Peugeot dealer when these were launched, and sadly they focused very much on the new semi-auto gearbox, which was frankly, dreadful. Great review highlighting, and bringing back memories of other issues of weight, lack of power, price etc.. struggled to sell them. I personally liked the design, and with the diesel engines, it's power issues were resolved, and then it drove remarkably well.

Being a wheelchair user a car like this would be great. On many cars the driver’s door doesn’t open far enough to allow good access.

My parents had one. The doors malfunctioned a lot of times. The most scary were the unwanted door openings at 100+ km/h….

Ah yes the 1007, I bought one of these to flip and it was a total nightmare. Doors always playing up but other than that it drove really nicely. Must admit I found the styling quite funky.

While I love the idea of the 1007, I couldn't live with its foibles on a daily basis. Shame really, as in theory it's a damn good concept.

I had one of these on hire and just could not help myself from saying “ Cabin doors to Automatic “ much to the annoyance of higher management.

Unkind to call the Avantime a disaster (except financially for Renault) as it is one of the very, very few French cars I would have considered owning. I have thought for quite some time that one of the biggest mistakes Ford made with the S-Max was not creating a fire-breathing Avantime equivalent.

Until very recently there was one at my work’s car park, orange and well cared. Odd proportions but it still looks very original. I remember it was pretty expensive when new and have always been quite uncommon.

An elderly neighbour of ours had a 1007. I found the design quirky but very practical and deserved to do better but reliability issues, weight and less than amazing fuel economy were not in its favour. Had it been built in Japan it probably would have worked but because French did it no favours.

my dad used to have one in Dolce spec with yellow paint. very funky cars although the passenger door once randomly opened (luckily, no one was in the passenger seat at the time) its a shame more manufactures don't have sliding doors even if they are Manuel (the ones on the 1007 are electric) another thing i liked with the one my dad had was the fact you could unzip the seat covers, meaning they are easy to wash, say for example you had a child in the car who accidently spilt chocolate on the seats it would make life so much easier.

Another witty and informative review - thank you both 👍👍

A past work colleague had one. I was always very confused as to why it existed. Oh well, because French.

I've worked on and driven a high spec ultra low mileage one with the 1.6 16v and automated manual gearbox. Much smoother, higher geared and surprisingly nippy. The gear control module failed and it went away, only to resurface via another contact tweo years later. Its OK now so somebody must have fixed it.

Hi Ian. Just loved that car but I must confess I didn't know that model at all and it was great to see you in our town doing the test drive. Des P🙂

I had a BX with that engine in the mid 90s, I sold it on when the cylinder liner seals started to allow coolant to leak into the sump.

Expect used prices to double now. You make so many cars very tempting. Great vid, once again, thanks.

Getting Bedford CA vibes from you driving around with the doors open on that (remembering CA van drivers always driving around with the doors back from my youth!)

I was looking for one of these with an automatic to replace my C4 with but sadly none were to be found at the time. I really like the doors.

Unlike any other Peugeot and I like it! Seems very Hubnut to me. Perfect shopping car for two people I would have thought.

I actually really like these because they are quirky. The doors are whacky indeed but I love the way Peugeot made these really funky with interior packs and you could even specify things like colour packs to swap trim bits, and a JBL sound system which was a posh add on back in 2004. That TU engine is a little trooper! Some very clever little design touches. A future classic for sure. Great review Ian. NB there was a huge Corner Of Despair too on the passenger side too 🤣

That car would be good for delivering mail or small eBay/Amazon purchases😊!

I attempted to park an auto version at a main dealership I was doing some work at a few years ago. Absolute nightmare of epic proportions. Even the dealers privately hated them. Possibly one of the worst cars ever to have been produced. Great vid as always though Ian. Oh how you make my day and make me chuckle. 😅

Cool video as ever! I always thought Peugeot never wanted to call it the '1007', but instead wanted to call it the 007 from the start, and the James bond argument led to the '1007'

sometimes I put the 1007 among the odd subcompacts I would buy on a shoestring and drive it until it dies but all reviews are lukewarm or negative. I guess I would get an Audi A2 (a misunderstood classic) or a Daihatsu Materia (which I would love to see in the channel) to do the job.

I've wanted to see a proper review of one of these since they first came out. Many thanks Ian, for a great review. I confess that I really like the 1007, provided it is a fully manual transmission. I suspect that either the diesel 1.4 litre or the petrol 1.6 litre engines would have lower revs when doing 70 MPH.

Quite like the look of these - a bit too upright but I like the fresh thinking. Shame the power-crazed UK motoring press derided it on launch.

You were very spot-on about the engine and gearbox. The TU3 is a bulletproof motor, and while yes it doesn't really like doing motorway speeds elegantly, it will still do them, I often drive it for hours on the highway and just keep her at over 3k revs, these things will happily stay at redline all day, and the MA gearbox as always isn't the greatest unit, it's fine but mushy, no matter how many miles or how new the car, every single one fitted with it will have awful shifts, especially when cold it can be very temperamental. But I do love them, dirt cheap to keep running.

Interesting video as usual. I seem to remember the 1007 was criticised when new for slow acceleration and unimpressive fuel economy caused by the excessive weight of the doors. A future star of the Festival of the Unexceptional perhaps? Fords B Max had rear sliding doors I think but not many cars do , apart from the Berlingo/Partner of which you are very well acquainted!

reminds me of some peugeot and renault combis with sliding doors...but they were advertised in the brochure that you could drive them with the door opened

Cute, funky little car, I'd love to have one! But sadly they're still not cheap enough here in Hungary, they're around the equivalent of 2000-2500 pounds...

Love the skylights on the hood illuminating the clouds.

I bought my 1.6 sport semi auto about 4 years ago when my disc popped in my back and what a godsend it's been. The huge aperture that opens up when that door slides back and the low floor line and high roof line make it a doddle to get in and out and with that high seating position and huge windscreen, it really is a pleasant driving experience only marred by the ponderous semi-automatic gearbox. But if you sit back and don't expect rapid F1 gear changes, it pootles along quite nicely and the 1.6 16v is a sweet unit if not driven too aggressively. And if you manipulate the seats properly which fold and slide in all manner of ways, (the front passenger seat can be folded flat to make sort of a table), then you can load a surprising amount in them.

A quick look here in Spain and it seems we only got the 1.4 HDI in diesel and prices start from around 3000 up to 6000 euros so not cheap. I tend to see elderly people drive them here. An interesting review nonetheless

I remember Top Gear showed this alongside the Renault Modus and the Honda Jazz.

A friend of mine had one. She found it really good for shopping, car parks, etc.

A mate of mine used to have a Transit with the sliding front doors. He managed to drive all the way from Brisbane to Canberra (about 1400km) with the door open. As you can guess, the Transit didn't beep at him or flash the interior light.

I love the sliding doors.

So many generic PSA parts from the era I owned C2's its all so familiar 🤣