Pretty, prestigious sports coupes are also pretty pricey. BMW's 3 Series Coupe starts at around £25,000. Audi's A5 begins from around £30,000. And that's before you equip your car properly. Against such a background, Peugeot's 407 Coupe stacks up rather well. Yes, it will depreciate more, but then when you take your initial savings in upfront pricing and specification into account, you can budget for that. Particularly attractive is the HDi 136 2.0-litre diesel variant that we're looking at here.

This entry-level diesel model has been introduced into the line-up to try and make it more accessible to British buyers who find it difficult to stomach paying well over £20,000 for any type of Peugeot. Hence a 407 Coupe line-up which now starts at £19,530 (for the 2.2-litre petrol model) or £19,995 for this HDi 136 variant.

True, 136bhp is a lot less than you'd find in diesel variants offered by German rivals: there's the 205bhp 2.7-litre V6 HDi model on offer for around £4,000 more if that's an issue (though you can't have that car with a manual gearbox). But should it be? After all, this car manages the rest to sixty in 10.1 seconds on the way to a maximum of 129mph. In a BMW or an Audi, you might find yourself yearning for more power. In a 407 Coupe, it's really about as fast as you want to be going.

Not that there's anything wrong with the handling balance of this car. It's just that it's intentionally been set up as a Grand Tourer than a B-road blaster. With some rivals, it's hard to know which of the two the designers and engineers had in mind, these cars falling between the two stools and achieving neither end. In the 407, you always know where you stand.

With the pressure off the need to drive like Lewis Hamilton, you can settle back and enjoy this car for what it is. You could spend three or four times as much and still come up with no more comfortable way of covering very long distances in extreme comfort. Just as well then that RT4 satellite navigation is fitted as standard. So, on the single Sport specification on offer, are alloy wheels, xenon headlamps, an electrochrome anti-dazzle rear view mirror, cruise control with a built-in speed limiter, rear parking sensors, laminated side windows, dual-zone climate control, central door locking, auto headlamps and wipers, tyre pressure sensors and ESP stability control. If you didn't know this car's raison d'etre, you could guess it from a glance at the specification list.

"In a 407 Coupe, you always know where you stand."

Coupes are brought more on aesthetic values than any other type of car. So what of the styling attributes of this one? As ever, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but few would call this car pretty. Equally well, few would object to the lines. It's certainly a complex shape. The relationship between the front and rear overhangs takes a little getting used to, weaned as we are on cars that use every inch of their wheelbase to pack in a massive passenger cell. The 407 Coupe is unashamedly profligate in its use of passenger space, offering just about enough in the back and little more. The rear three-quarter view is probably the most flattering aspect, the clean styling of the back of the car showing off the sleek glasshouse to best effect.

On the road, this car will hustle happily through a set of fast sweepers and its body control is always unflustered but, as we've said, this is not a sporty car. You'll know within ten yards of setting off that the quiet helm and velvety ride quality instead focus on refinement and civility rather than balls-out aggression. Such is the refinement of the 407 Coupe that you'll often find yourself travelling far faster than you at first imagined, something worth bearing in mind when coming into a hairpin bend!

Peugeot have set something of a precedent to follow with some very good previous Euro NCAP crash test results but the 407 again takes a big step forward. Active safety comes in the form of brake discs with a diameter of up to 330mm and next-generation ESP stability control which is standard on every model. As well as marshalling the anti-skid function, ESP also acts as a controller for the anti lock braking system, the emergency brake assist and the electronic brakeforce distribution to each individual wheel.

The chassis itself incorporates not only the highest level of torsional rigidity ever seen on a Peugeot in this sector - as you might expect - but it also features a device known as an impactor that anchors the engine to the subframe and prevents it being shunted into the passenger cell in the event of a crash. Pedestrian protection is a major design criterion these days and the 407 features foam padded bumper bars and a bonnet that deforms to absorb shock, the top of the engine a good distance below that sweeping bonnet line. Up to nine air bags can be specified - twin fronts, side, curtain and steering column units offer optimum protection.

Now that Peugeot has correctly priced the 407 Coupe and added this important HDi 136 2.0-litre diesel model to the line-up, this car begins at last to make all kinds of sense to the right kind of buyer. But will any of them notice? Or is it all too much, too late? It will be interesting to see.