PEUGEOT 407 test drive since 2004 sedan

Fans of cheese

Three Frenchmen on Russian land. Two, moreover, are completely new. Mikhail Gzovsky was looking for the pros and cons of fellow countrymen. Photo: Alexander Batyr.
Renault Laguna 2.0 L, 170 hp, 6-speed automatic, PRivilege equipment, 1 025 900 rub.
Citroen C5 2.0 L, 138 hp, 6-speed automatic, confort equipment, 947 000 rub.
Peugeot 407 2.0 liters, 143 hp, 4-speed automatic, SV Executive, 836 100 rubles.
Cantal
Good cheese, like good wine, should ripen. In addition to compliance with the recipe, strict maintenance of temperature is required, and most importantly patience. Only after many months, Cantalus will gain corporate fruit taste. Peugeot 407 passed the exposure time of the model time turned four years old. But in adulthood, he is ready to fight youth. The car is rather conservative in design, perhaps, so it has become one of the most popular French in Russia? It is painfully unlike the Russian gastronomic taste for French, does not accept too avant -garde recipes.
Peugeot carries an echo of the late 1990s in my opinion, the golden era of the car. Electronics have already proved its solidity to the world, but has not yet passed into a massive attack on human values. The middle class sedan is not still trying to seem smarter than the owner and does not fill a great price than deserves. At the wheel of Peugeot 407, you command it, it is you who are not incredible and at times is wayward, but you easily get used to it, forgetting about the shortcomings. The most obvious visibility. The mirrors, which are growing from the doors, moved to the driver, make them twist their heads, distracting from the situation in front. And the mirrors themselves are unreasonably small.
Another minus is the transmission. As experience shows, a four -speed automatic box is quite ready to meet the modern requirements for the reaction speed. But in the case of Peugeot manic commitment to this particular machine, which nominates from generation to generation from one model to another, is difficult to explain. Switching delays force to calculate overtaking each time, and as a result, you begin to refuse from maneuvers at all.
A two-liter 143-horsepower engine at low speeds is lucky to four. The sports regime twists the crankshaft to higher revolutions and slightly improves the situation, but for a long time I don’t want to go so at all the Peugeot engine is very noisy.
Manageability is close to the ideal of the 1990s. A light, but not disinforming steering wheel, moderate rolls and rather sharp, but later intervention of electronics, a blowing motor and thereby forcing you, the driver, to think: is it not too fast food?
Div, sorry, driving. Four hundred and seventh is the most spacious for the rear passengers, but very simple in decoration. What is more important to you, the practicality of Peugeot or the diet of newly made competitors? Teril and thin bouquet, like the oldest French cheese Cantal, or the riot of taste of barely curled milk?
Bofor
There is a huge success in their homeland. Immediately after the publication in 2007, Renault Laguna was awarded the most beautiful interior and the most beautiful car at the Festival Automobile International de Paris exhibition. What conquered the French? It seems to me that no one was expecting such a sharpness of lines and aggressiveness of the appearance from Renault. The spindlers whisper: the French intended to replay the Germans! Why not try?
If you recall the lagoon of the previous generation or just put the Peugeot 407 nearby, the progress will seem huge. Magnificent, thick and like rubber to the touch plastic of the front panel; An almost impeccable ergonomic order on the console, a grave steering wheel of prizes went to the lagoon for nothing! And what is on the go?
I immediately noted the best acoustic comfort compared to 407, significantly smaller vibrations on the steering wheel. The smoothness of the stroke on the iot, but also surpasses Peugeot. The difference in power, of course, is very noticeable. In a temporary dimension, Renault beats Peugeot in the gate, but this does not add special confidence in the overtaking. Firstly, a belated reaction to the gas pedal, and not only to its press, but also to reset. Sometimes even gets the impression that the accelerator is faulty. Secondly, the slow work of the box. Kick Dawn turned on with a delay, the electronics seem to not decide which transmission to turn on: the third or maybe the second? But with a measured driving, the machine is invisible at all: you don’t feel switching, you just see the tachometer arrows in the jumps, and six steps provide fuel efficiency to a little worse than Peugeot.
Lagoon performs high-speed exercises well, the rolls here noticeably less than that of the 407th. The picture somewhat spoils only the steering. The trouble is that the reactive effort of Renault is artificial and insufficient. So you have to rotate the steering wheel at random, feeling for the right angle. No, they still did not reach the Germans. Nevertheless, the impression of the lagoon leaves pleasant! It’s just that you should not perceive it as a German Illeraller, the French have their amazing hard cheese of a noble boor with a habitat of a hazelnut.
CAMEMBERT
Everyone probably heard about this variety. The real original Camamber cylinder with a diameter of about 11 cm, packed in a wooden box. Interestingly, he has been packed with unripe for 200 years, Camamber on the counter is reaching. But it is worth cutting the cylinder, as the ripening stops. As for the taste, it is very specific, which is why Kamamber fans are no less than opponents.
Citroen-C5 also gives rise to the opposite reaction: I do not like the undisguised admiration from undisguised admiration. Take at least the front panel. In terms of quality, it is made at Renault level, but design! If you operate with architectural terminology, then the lagoon is minimalism; Citroen is typical eclecticism. The front panel consists of seemingly incompatible elements: a combination of instruments with upturned eyebrows; The steering wheel with a motionless and dotted hub and a controversial lines of the passenger is controversial.
Electron workers rule the ball in the instrument panel: taking into account the climate control here, there are already five displays! The speedometer is ardent, but for some reason the testimony is duplicated in digital format. And how to determine the degree of oil heating and coolant on horizontal liquid crystal columns without any graduation?
Stop finding fault, but you will not confuse the style with nothing! The colleague breaks off. Indeed, you can praise the car for no less long. All testers really liked the front seats: rather soft, but with excellent lateral support in the back and hips. Yes, and the salon in the front is the widest.
But even more advantages are gaining C5 in motion. Despite the fewer horsepower under the hood, Citroen seemed the most balanced in dynamics management! The diesel engine runs most of the time in the favorite range from 2000 to 4000 rpm. Responses on the gas pedal are fast, the machine is better agreed with the engine, therefore, the driver with the machine has a complete understanding.
Manageability is also good: C5 goes without a hint of nervousness, confidently stands on the arc and predictably glides the front hand at an excessively high speed of the entrance to the turn. The stabilization system works quite sharply and is turned off only at speeds up to 50 km/h. The main advantages of Citroen are excellent sound and vibration insulation and smoothness. Judging by the solid mass, the silence in the cabin is achieved by the generous use of sound -absorbing materials. Well, the smooth tread is fully the merit of the hydropneumatic suspension Hydractive III+.
If you find yourself in France, then, of course, you want to bring cheese to your homeland. Keep in mind: some of the fragrant varieties are officially prohibited from transporting an airplane in the cabin without hermetic packaging. But the gourmets from the cheese cannot be stopped, right?

Peugeot 407
The sedan and the station wagon debuted at a car dealership in Geneva in 2004, a year later a compartment appeared, the engines were modernized.
Engines: gasoline 1.8 - 2.9 liters (125 - 211 hp), diesel 1.6 - 2.7 (109 - 204 hp).
Gearboxes: 5-, 6-speed mechanical; 4-, 6-speed automatic.
Complete: SR Executive, SV Executive, ST Executive.
The price of basic configurations: 645 600 1 101 100 rubles.
+ Comfortable front seats, understandable handling, roomy trunk.
- mediocre visibility through external mirrors, small road clearance in combination with a long front overhang.
General assessment 7.8
The most modest in decoration of the interior, but the most spacious for the rear passengers.
Renault Laguna
The new generation of the model debuted in 2007.
Engines: gasoline 1.6 - 2.0 liters (110 - 170 hp) and diesel 1.5 - 2.0 l (110 - 175 hp).
Gearboxes: 6-speed automatic and mechanical.
Complete: Expression, Dynamique, Privilege.
The price of basic versions: 698 625 - 972 900 rub.
+ Laconic and logical control of secondary functions, a powerful engine, a good setting of the chassis.
- The most modest trunk in the trinity, non -informative brakes, a close rear seat, the lack of a full -sized spare wheel.
General estimate 8.0
An attempt to make a car that would be accepted into a German club is not so far from success.
Citroen C5
The sedan and the station wagon were represented in Brussels and Geneva in January and March 2008.
Engines: gasoline 1.8 - 3.0 liters (127 215 hp), diesel 1.6 - 2.7 (110 - 208 hp).
Gearboxes: 6-speed automatic and mechanical.
Complete: Dynamique, Confort, Exclusive.
The price of basic configurations: 689 000 - 1,430,000 rubles.
+ The spacious front of the cabin, excellent seats, low noise and vibration level, a painful motor, adjustable road clearance.
- mediocre visibility, tightness from behind.
General assessment 8.4
Elegant, typically French in spirit and execution, a model for fans of comfort and extravagance.
LEVITATION
The air suspensions have always been a skate of Citroen. The first serial design appeared in 1955 on the DS model, and since then their philosophy has not changed. The clearance of the current C5 with the Hydractive III+ suspension varies, as we installed experimentally, in the range from loading 110 mm to almost off -roads 215 mm! In the highest position, the car travels up to 10 km/h, after which it drops into an intermediate 200 and 160 mm. The main difference between the new system and the previous in the reaction to the loading of the machine.
Mikhail GZOVSKY: Very unexpectedly in terms of finishing, Citroen turned out to be like Renault, and not to a fellow at the Peugeot concern. In fact, each variety has its own unique taste.
 
 
 
 
 

   
 
 
 
 
 
 




 
 

Source: The magazine "Driving"