Peugeot 207 CC review
Peugeot 207 1.6 THP GT Road Test
Test date 28 March 2007
Price as tested £18,855
For Convenient roof, ride and handling, body control, front seats
Against Small boot, weight dulls performance, five-speed 'box
When Mercedes unveiled the original folding-metal-roofed SLK back in 1996, people were wowed by its elegance, its convenience and the mesmerising mechanical dance of its mechanism.
But no one was expecting such complicated roofing arrangements to be offered on a heavily modified supermini four years later. Yet that’s exactly what Peugeot provided in the 206 CC, whose style, effortless transition to rooflessness and relative affordability made it a big hit. Particularly with women, who have bought 88 per cent of the 47,000 206 CCs sold in the UK since 2001, during which time it has often been the nation’s favourite convertible. It’s been a major success elsewhere, too; Peugeot has shifted almost 367,000 206 CCs worldwide.
Which is why Peugeot has made big efforts to make its smallest coupé cabriolet a better car this time around. The original 206 CC was a lot of ingenuity for the money, but it could also be a lot of trouble; plenty of early owners experienced the massive inconvenience of a roof that ground to a halt halfway through operations, often as it was about to rain.
The 206 CC fell short in plenty of other areas, too. Like the hatch, it had a poor driving position. It was also cramped, the proximity of the trailing edge of the windscreen making it feel oddly confined even when the roof was down. And the rear seats were best suited to inanimate objects. The patchy finish of the cabin was a fair indicator of the depth of quality pervading the rest of this admittedly cute-looking car, and despite the solid roof it wasn’t quite as refined as you’d expect.
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