I have no intention of explaining exactly what I was doing transporting a bevy of young ladies and their luggage on an eight-hour round trip the other week, but I'm happy to report that the Peugeot 807 proved to be an excellent machine for the job.My passengers were certainly impressed. Being artistically minded, they all loved the futuristic dashboard arrangement. They appreciated how much of their clutter could be packed on board. They marvelled at the side doors which open and shut with a single pull of the handle, squeaked with delight at the three - three! - sunroofs, and eventually settled down to the fact that the 2.2-litre turbo diesel engine could easily handle overtaking manoeuvres which at least one of them regarded as suspect in the early stages of the trip.Personally I was more concerned with how much fuel we were using. The 807 is a very big car and it performs strongly, but that engine seems very efficient, and unwilling to dip below 30mpg. Eighty litres of diesel can be stuffed into the tank, which means - as I confirmed on an even longer solo trip a few days later - that you can easily cover more than 550 miles between refills.I didn't look for many other excuses to stop. The seat design isn't ideal for me (tension became evident in the small of my back during longer stints) but overall the 807 is reasonably comfortable. I could happily use this car for epic journeys across Europe if the need arose.That's as long as the road surfaces were all of reasonable quality. As mentioned in the launch report of the 807, my biggest criticism of this car is the way the front end starts bouncing on any road which has a lot of bumps and crests. Perhaps the original test route was a particularly unfortunate one to choose, but the effect is still there even on less challenging highways. The new Renault Espace has shown that large MPVs can be made to ride beautifully on almost any kind of road, and I hope Peugeot (and Citroen and Fiat, who sell the same car under different names) can be persuaded to address the issue some time soon.Until the test car came along, every other 807/C8/Ulysse I had driven was fitted with the colour display screen in the centre of the dash. A fine unit, but it tends to dominate the view and make the more familiar, wishy-washily coloured dials to either side difficult to read.This car was of a lower spec and therefore had a monochrome display mounted elsewhere in the cabin. It makes all the difference. The dials become much clearer and it's far more easy to check speed, revs, fuel level and so on. I would go for this cheaper but more effective option every time.I'm warming to the 807. The way my life is constituted at present, I don't need a large MPV, but if I did I think this one would be very near the top of my shopping list. I imagine it could be an extremely effective towcar with this engine, and the fact that, if you remove five of the seats, you can release nearly 2500 litres of luggage space could only increase the general appeal.Second opinion: We put an unusually high number of miles on the 807. I did a couple of long motorway hauls, in very much duller company than mentioned above, so I had no option but to concentrate on the car itself. I was very impressed, not just by the strong performance of the engine, with its 235lb/ft of torque at 2000rpm (enough to sort out most of the motorway bully boys I encountered, and excellent on the climbs) but also by the way in which this bulky machine seems to shrink in size as you get used to it. The satnav (with radio/CD player and GSM phone) and the triple sunroofs are extra-cost options at £915 and £990 over and above the price we've quoted, and I could live without them. But the GLX is well enough kitted-out as standard, with those electrically operated sliding rear doors, fold-in mirrors, side and rear sunblinds, side curtain airbags for all three rows of seats, a trip computer and swivel-round front seats, to name but a few. I'd wondered if the 807 might be a bit of a bore on those long-distance runs, but I got back after one 700-mile round trip thinking that, if I had to start the same journey again the following day, the big Peugeot would do fine. Ross Finlay.
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