Review
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Do you remember the old days when family holidays meant a fraught few hours arguing over directions?
It was a time of rows over missed junctions as your passenger frantically twirled an oversized map and squinted at far away roadsigns.
Now, with satellite navigation, it’s an all-new experience. . . of rows over missed junctions and arguments over whether the computer is heading in the right direction while your passenger frantically twirls buttons and stabs at keys. Technology changes, people don’t.
Our 407 long-termer is fitted with the excellent RT4 multimedia system, which includes satellite navigation.
It has proved a mixed blessing, as I dispensed with a map for the entire journey during a visit to France.
For much of the 1,000-mile route it was faultless, ensuring that motorway junctions went unmissed.
In fact, it cut 65 minutes off the journey compared to relations in a separate car who opted for the traditional map reading to our destination in Brittany.
However, the difficulty arises when you become so reliant on the system that you wait on tenterhooks for its next instruction.
In the centre of a town, rather than taking the obvious route into the countryside, I waited for instructions.
By the time they came, I had missed my turning and lost 20 minutes in a traffic jam.
Just as a poor workman blames his tools, this is probably a case of driver error, because overall the system has been almost faultless and intuitive to use.
I say almost because the RT4 system, which also includes a 30-gigabyte hard drive which allows you to download up to 180 hours of music in MP3 format and display films and photos when stationary, has been temperamental on occasion.
The intermittent fault means that it will cut out and reboot a few seconds later, with everything from radio to sat-nav paralysed until the electronic cogs start turning again.
As it’s a rare and unpredictable problem, I will try to live with it rather than pack the car off the to garage again.
Talking of garages, Marshall Peugeot finally fixed my washer bottle problems on the third attempt.
Overall, they tried their best and made sure the problem was solved in the end.
Since then, there has just been one other electrical niggle – the tyre pressure warning light came on for no reason, although it now seems to have fixed itself.
The Peugeot also manages to hold its own in the residual value stakes against key rivals, despite retaining a seemingly lowly 29% of its cost new after three years/60,000 miles.
The equivalent Vauxhall Vectra estate, the 1.9 CDTi SRi 150, also retains 29%, while the 2008 Renault Laguna 2.0 dCi diesel Sport Tourer Initiale retains 31%.
Ford’s new Mondeo in 2.0 TDCi Titanium X trim also retains 31%. All the models are similarly priced.
However, Volkswagen still holds the residual value crown here, as the Passat 2.0 Sport TDI 170 holds on to 38% of its new value.
Fact file
Price: £22,525 (£24,025 as tested)
Mileage: 6,450
CO2 emissions (g/km): 165
Company car tax bill (2007) 40% tax-payer: £190 per month
Insurance group: 14
Combined mpg: 45.5
Test mpg: 42
CAP Monitor RV: £7,175/29%
Contract hire rate: £551
Expenditure to date: Nil
