Roy Lewis road tests the Peugeot 107 1.0-litre 3-cylinder 5-door Verve (From Hereford Times)

Roy Lewis road tests the Peugeot 107 1.0-litre 3-cylinder 5-door Verve

8:00am Friday 8th January 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

AT-A-GLANCE Peugeot 107 1.0-litre 3-cylinder 5-door Verve.

Price: £9,495. Top speed: 100mph.

0-62mph: 14.2 seconds.

Fuel: 61.3mpg (combined figure).

CO 2 emissions (g/km): 106.

Verdict: Good to drive, cheap to run, roomy, well built, modern design and a sensible buy.

WE all love a good deal, whether it’s a few pence off a litre of fuel or a bargain at the sales. But these savings can hardly compare to a good buy with a new car.

Take Peugeot’s little 107, a budget car that is modern and stylish and cuts no corners in engineering or build quality where it really matters.

Now, with a lot of worthwhile updates, it sells for a little over £8,000 which represents excellent value for money.

The handy 107 is one of a trio of funky budget cars put together in the same factory. The others are the Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo and because they share a large percentage of the same components, manufacturing costs are kept to a minimum.

Peugeot favours the peppy 68bhp three-cylinder petrol engine and although the cars may look the same at a glance, there are some noticeable differences, with each manufacturer stamping their own identity on the vehicle and adding a few creature comforts so that prices do vary.

Peugeot now sells the cars with three different specifications – the three-door Urban Lite, the three and five-door Urban and the three and five-door Verve, with prices from £8,095 to £9,495.

Because of the latest improvements and customer feedback, the cars are right up to date, even safer to drive and better to live with.

Have no worries about the 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine. It is a gem of engineering, delivering plenty of punch and is comparatively smooth in operation – a far cry from the three-cylinder motors of yesteryear that were comparatively rough and noisy. This motor is not altogether quiet when it is being driven hard but noise is not intrusive.

The ride is comfortable, if a little unsettling over poor surfaces, the handling precise and the road-holding is good.

The Peugeot’s 0-62mph acceleration time of 14.2 seconds shows just how lively the little motor is and there is decent pulling power up through the five-speed gearbox for overtaking. The top speed of 100mph will keep up with the Joneses on the motorway.

However, the 107 is best in an urban environment where its nimble handling means that it can weave in and out of the traffic with ease.

Its small size and good turning circle make it easy to park and manoeuvre in tight corners.

Not only is this car fun to drive but it will please your pocket as it returns some 60mpg for most of the time and gives even more smiles per gallon when being driven with a light right foot.

Official fuel figures are 51.3mpg around town and 68.8mpg on the open road to produce a combined figure of 61.3mpg.

And there is more good news as the low emissions mean an annual road tax bill of £35.

The real appeal of the 107 is that it is built to a good standard for a small car. It doesn’t skimp on space and you certainly don’t feel a second- class citizen driving it.

Admittedly, there are one or two rough edges on close inspection and the Peugeot is not as plush as some of the more expensive city runabouts but it is comfortable and easy to live with. Good construction inside and out and modern technology mean it should be around for many more years.

Inside, the Peugeot has plenty of plastic on show but it is hard wearing and of decent quality. The dash is well laid out, too, with a large speedometer complemented by a rev counter in a nearby pod set higher up.

Despite its small dimensions, the 107 has ample space for four adults, providing they are not too large.

But with all the seats filled there is little space left for luggage.

However, fold the rear seats down and a much larger cargo area is available. Access to the boot is through a narrow rear door which would benefit from being bigger.

The flagship model is the Verve, pictured, which looks costly for a small car but it does come with a long and excellent equipment list.

It has air-conditioning, driver, passenger and side airbags, two rear ISOFIX mountings, electric windows, electric power steering, ABS with electronic brakeforce distribution, remote control central locking and stereo radio with mono CD player and an MP3 socket.