Peugeots have a strong reputation here the brand DNA includes a ride unexpectedly supple

Peugeots have a strong reputation here; the “brand DNA” includes a ride unexpectedly supple in cars which steer so crisply, but that feat has not been achieved in the company’s most recent products, notably the 307. Peugeot claims to be back on track with the 407, thanks to a new double-wishbone front suspension system of a design seen nowhere else before. For various reasons of suspension geometry, it is claimed to keep the steering sharp and body lean at a minimum without inflicting the ills of stiff springing.We shall find out if it works when we road-test the 407 in March. The glovebox is huge.The 407’s other key appeal should be the way it feels to drive.

The two biggest clues are the headlights, part of a “feline face”, and the vertical trailing edge of the rear side window, a Gerard Welter motif first used in the 205 GTI. The tail has somerthing of an updated 406 about it, too, but the rear light lenses are pleasing objects in their own right with clear “glass” over housings seemingly made of red foil.Inside, the style is less adventurous but still a move ahead from the 406’s conservatism. The style is simple, clean and serene, and a large diffuser grille on top of the dashboard keeps occupants cool without inflicting an icy blast. A series of slats behind this grille has the look of some giant electronic heat-sink from a futuristic transport pod, a note of absurdity among the sobriety elsewhere. Most surfaces are padded for a superficial feeling of quality, but a flimsy centre armrest and a cheap bonnet prop (instead of self-supporting gas struts) chip away at the chance to emulate an Audi Pity.

Peugeots are also sufficiently numerous to have a critical mass of acceptability, and most people who have bought 406s in the past have liked the smooth, fluid and responsive driving characteristics.Apparently, in customer clinics – in which a new car and its main rivals, all painted the same colour, are gathered together with badges removed and prospective buyers give their views – nearly everyone guessed the 407 was a Peugeot. What dictates success and what leads to failure is hard to deconstruct. Sometimes the designs succeed despite their radicalism as much as because of it; a family Ford is bound to sell well to those who are familiar with Fords even if it looks odd, and maybe new buyers will join in because they are intrigued. But a Nissan Primera does not have that bedrock of support, so a radical new one gets ignored.What, then, are the chances for the new Peugeot? The French company has long had a reputation for pleasing designs, many of them created in collaboration with Italian design house Pininfarina, and one of the main reasons why the now-ageing 206 supermini is still the car most bought by British private buyers is the way it looks. Do not create more grey porridge, nor attempt to beat the established premium makes at their own game because you cannot. Go boldly, instead, where no car has quite gone before.Will it work? The 407 will certainly get noticed, and probably admired to the pleasure of its users.

“We could have made a car that’s an evolution of what we had before, but we wanted to create something new,” Peugeot’s long-serving design director, Gerard Welter said.Wanted or needed? Because it has never been more important to set your products apart from those of your rivals, for that way are brand values, reputations and desires created. This week, Peugeot revealed its new 407 saloon, a striking-looking replacement for, unsurprisingly, the eight-year-old 406. It has the low nose and slatted, open mouth of a long-past Ferrari, an ultra-streamlined windscreen whose roots are pulled far forward, a high, fast-looking tail and a visual presence rather greater than that of most upper mid-size, company-targeted saloons.
And here lies its key selling feature: the way it looks. It is time to offer the motorist sensible solutions to serious problems.