A Peugeot You’ll Actually Want.
26th August 2009
We’ve been waiting at least two years for this one ever since it’s concept design. It’s Peugeot’s attempt at putting themselves back on the map and if looks are anything to go by, this may well do the trick. The Peugeot RCZ.
Forget the badge. If we get rid of the badge, you'd think it was an Audi.
Peugeot has a bit of a sob story to tell. Years ago Peugeots were respected, and their 205 GTi was the car that started it off, being one of the best (and first) ‘Hot Hatchbacks’ in the world, and even today you’ll find them mentioned in “top 10 best handling cars” on numerous sites on the internet. Then we had years of dreariness. The 206 was their next ‘good car’ (I should know - I had one!) and was so good that it was used in the World Rally Championships for many, many years. And actually, when it came to handling, nearly all of Peugeot’s hatchbacks were very good cars to drive, but that wasn’t enough to generate sales as people were still put off by the whole ‘cheapness’ of the brand. Nothing felt special, everything felt budget.
Peugeot realised that the only way to improve the brand’s reputation was to aim more up-market, but still be cheaper than the upmarket brands. Thus began the designing of the RCZ. Everything about it is batting way above Peugeot’s range. Even the performance, which is the one thing Peugeot’s normally very good at. So, to prove it, here’s a checklist of all the different aspects of any good car.
Looks? Well just look at it. And it’s not just aesthetics either. Everything is built from high quality materials. High quality leather interior. High quality bodywork. And look at those wheels. When have you ever seen anything like those on any factory-spec Peugeot? Shame it’s still got Peugeot’s mouthy front grille though. Looks like a botox injection gone horribly wrong.
Performance? Well no prizes for guessing the engines. A 1.6L turbo petrol engine for now, and a 2.0L turbo diesel on it’s way, as per usual. The petrol engine will produce 200bhp, giving a 0-60 time of 7.6 seconds. However, the front suspension is double-wishbone, which in layman’s terms is the same suspension setup you get on a Ferrari 360. So 60mph in 7 or 8 seconds may not be as quick as you thought, but at least it’ll do 60mph everywhere.
Fuel Economy? Yep. That torquey petrol engine’s party trick is that it’ll produce 200bhp and decent performance, but also return 39mpg. That’s a LOT for a performance car. Better still, if you’re not really after the performance and you opt for the diesel engine, that’ll use fuel at over 50 miles per gallon. Again, impressive stuff.
Interior? Well as said it’s all high quality leather interior. Or so we’re told. The concept designs showed a fantastic interior though. Let’s hope it stays. However, Peugeot have confirmed the rear seats will actually fold up, giving a very large boot. So it may be a two-door sports coupe, but with this you can have your cake and eat it.
No word on price yet, but expect it to be priced like a Peugeot. Their current lineup of cars range between £8000 to £15,000, so expect this to start around £18,000. Although given Peugeot have announced that they’ll be producing this car “in small numbers”, so it’s likely to be a bit more than that.
The RCZ will go on sale in the UK in spring next year.
No related posts.
1 Comment »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
I agree it looks rather like the Audi. De-badgeing would definitely help!
[Reply]
Comment by Adrian — August 26, 2009 @ 2:20 pm