Alternative review of Peugeot 1007

Doors. They're the main topic of conversation with Peugeot's 1007. If you like the idea of remote sliding doors on an urban small car, then you'll love this car. If you don't, then you might struggle to see the point. My point of view, for what it's worth, is that it's refreshing to see a different approach in this area of the market. OK, so you pay a premium for it. Still, as MINI have shown, customers are prepared to pay that for a small car that offers something stylish and different.

So let's get straight down to it with those doors. The chunky fridge-style doorhandles are tucked just under the door mirrors but a press on the remote control key fob is enough to send the doors sliding aft. Their progress can best be described as leisurely, so you'll need a decent battery in the remote if the doors are to be fully open by the time you arrive at the car. Despite initial impressions, the doors don't extend beyond the length of the vehicle, so you can safely reverse close to a wall or another car without fear of damage. In tight multi storey car parks, I found these 'Open Sesame' doors very useful indeed. Side clearance shouldn't be an issue as the doors are designed to jut out less than the width of the fixed door mirrors. These doors are also an important safety feature as any cyclist who has had a car door opened into their path will attest. They also feature an anti-pinch system that detects if they're closing onto something and instantly reverses the action. Initial fears that mothers may have with regard to children getting trapped should be assuaged on this score. Measuring just 1686mm wide, the 1007, is the best part of a foot narrower than a MINI, so parking is a doddle. Lengthwise, it measures just 3731mm, making it about 11cm longer than a Ford Ka. The door pillar is, rather unusually, curved in profile which means that as long as the front seat passenger doesn't have his or her seat slid fully back, slim-hipped passengers will be able to slide into the back without tilting the front seat forwards. I also liked the independent rear seat arrangement, with seat backs that can be folded against the cushion. Both seats slide back and forth so that either passenger space or luggage room can be optimised, although if you're after both you're in the wrong sector of the market. Folded forwards, the rear seats feature a sturdy work surface. The front passenger seats can also fold forward to flat, so that it's possible to transport the occasional long object of up to 212cm in length.

Three engines are available starting with a 75bhp 1.4-litre unit. The 110bhp 1.6-litre petrol powerplant should give the 1007 quite some zip and the 70bhp 1.4-litre HDi diesel offers the sort of economy once associated with mopeds. Safety features are plentiful including dynamic stability control and airbaggery firing from virtually every point of the compass in the event of a crash. There's even a seatbelt warning buzzer that sounds if rear seat occupants aren't properly strapped in. The doors lock automatically when you pull away, meaning that traffic light bag snatchers will have to looks at softer targets. A range of big car optional equipment is also available including features such as colour GPS satellite navigation and GSM telephone kit. On the road, the car's handling is competent but unexceptional - as you would expect from a citycar of this kind. You don't expect to be able to corner a smart car on its doors and nor should you expect life behind the wheel of a 1007 to be much different. The fascia design itself is, after all of the exterior innovation, surprisingly conventional. Chrome-ringed overlapping dials feature in a binnacle that seems a step on in terms of quality from the small Peugeot's we grew up with. A '2-Tronic' sequential manual gearbox is offered with petrol models. This offers two gearchanging modes. The first is automated, aping the actions of a conventional automatic gearbox, whereas the other offers manual control via the stick or the wheel-mounted paddles. Most buyers will stick with a clutch pedal and a more conventional manual gearbox.

Peugeot dealers will have their work cut out on this one. This really is a car you need to get people into. If they succeed in doing that, then I can see urban people - and particularly urban women - being converted to Peugeot's way of thinking. But whether in numbers sufficient to meet this French manufacturer's expectations - well, time will tell on that one.