Enthusiasts who have little exposure to contemporary French cars – for example, enthusiasts from the US and Canada – tend to get the impression that all French cars are inherently quirky. That’s not always the case. While French cars are often imbued with a certain character, Peugeot, Citroen and Renault produce thousands of fairly conventional sedans, hatchbacks, crossovers and vans each year. But then once in a while the French will do something weird like this, the B-segment Peugeot 1007 MPV.
That’s pronounced “one thousand seven” and not “one double-oh seven”, thank you Barbara Broccoli and the legal team at Eon Productions. The 1007’s main claim to fame is the use of two electric sliding doors in place of four conventionally-hinged ones. It’s main claim to infamy is just how much of a profit vampire it was, its trick doors costing a lot to engineer and its sales falling way off projections. Peugeot expected at least 130,000 Europeans each year would want to snap up this quirky little MPV. Not even the total production number of 1007s over its five-year run met the initial yearly projections, Peugeot producing just 123,900 between 2005 and 2009. Renault, meanwhile, was selling two to seven times as many of its rival (and much more conventional) Modus each year. Automotive analysts found PSA lost more per 1007 than they actually charged for each one, estimating the loss at around 2 billion euros.
Were dual sliding doors a novel feature in this segment? Absolutely. Were they necessary? Not really. Peugeot was trying to make the 1007 appeal to buyers who lived in tightly-packed European cities and parked on narrow streets. To those buyers, sliding doors were a boon. Unfortunately, they took around six seconds to close – hardly ideal on, for example, a rainy day – and they added extra complexity and weight (88 pounds each). They could also be opened manually even while the car was in motion but couldn’t be powered shut above 3mph. Some decried that as being unsafe but it might’ve been handy if you were doing some abductions or drive-by shootings.
Not that you would want to use the 1007 as a getaway vehicle as it was pretty slow. The engine range consisted of 1.4 and 1.6 petrol engines (74 and 108 hp, respectively) and 1.4 and 1.6 diesel engines (66 hp and 109 hp). None of these were what could be considered fast, the 1.4 mills taking around 14 seconds to hit 60 mph. The optional 2-tronic semi-automatic transmission further sapped performance; it wasn’t made available on the diesel models.
Beyond engine performance, the 1007 was also rather disappointing to drive, like many Peugeots of the 2000s. The -06 series cars of the 1990s had been superb to drive with lively handling. They also boasted clean, elegant styling. The -07 cars of the 2000s were more ungainly to behold and less engaging to drive and the dorky/cute 1007 was no exception.
Renault Modus (top), first-generation Opel Meriva (bottom)
In a way, the 1007 was reminiscent of GM’s first front-wheel-drive minivans, the U-Body “dustbusters”. PSA, like GM, had opted not to follow the template set by Renault who invented and popularized the C MPV segment with the Scenic and beat the 1007 to market with the B MPV Modus. Instead, PSA insisted on trying something dramatically different and couldn’t match the market leader’s success. Ironically, GM actually actually beat Peugeot and Renault to this segment with the Opel Meriva. Cleanly styled, well-packaged and devoid of pointless gimmickry, the Meriva outsold the 1007 and even did better than the Modus.
Ford B-Max (top), second-generation Opel Meriva (bottom)
Although the 1007 was commercially unsuccessful, it did have a legacy of sorts. Perhaps inspired by the Pug’s creativity, Ford introduced its B-segment B-Max MPV with sliding rear doors and no B-pillar. Opel’s similarly-sized second-generation Meriva also tried a different tack with its doors, utilizing rear-hinged rear doors. This segment’s moment in the sun, however, was short-lived – sales have flatlined in the past few years as European buyers shift to crossovers.
These B-segment MPVs were typically just high-roof versions of existing hatchbacks (the 1007 used the Citroen C2 platform) and often offered novel interior features like sliding rear seats. The new B-segment crossovers are similarly hatchback-based albeit with a raised ride height and some unique interior elements.
None of them have dual sliding doors, though. Vive la différence!
Photographed in Vienna, Austria in September 2018.
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Peugeot made the mistake of asking folk what they wanted in a city car, and then designing it. People are notorious for changing their minds…. I have seen one of these Pugs – someone locally with an elderly invalid mother owned one for a while.
“Some decried that as being unsafe but it might’ve been handy if you were doing some abductions or drive-by shootings.”
Nice writing all around, William.
I wish we had more funky cars like this here in the states.
The sliding doors seem brilliant on paper, but the key is going to be in their execution. If they operate with anything like the heavy balkiness of minivan doors (or take 6 full seconds to power open & closed), you’re going to tire of them very very quickly. We’re accustomed to opening and closing a driver’s door in less than a second with minimal effort.
I too don’t see the point of power doors for most buyers. Our 2004 Sienna had a powered one which we didn’t really want, but I prefer to open the unpowered as it’s faster and not limited on grades. At least it was trouble-free.
+q
Likewise. The rear doors on my Sedona are manual only, and I prefer them that way. And they open and close just as fast as a swinging door.
I’ve long thought sliding doors make loads of sense and wish they were offered on “normal” cars that don’t have funky styling. Unpowered doors are fine; I’ve never had trouble opening or closing them on minivans and the lighter doors on a standard car should be even easier to use. They make it much easier to get in and out of standard parking spaces.
The idea even predates the minivan; VW looked into it when developing the original Golf:
Sliding-doors-with-a-car rather than the other way round.
Even in the fat years of PSA, high off the success of the 06-series and the 307, this thing made no sense whatsoever. Slow, ugly, very unnecessary and, to top it off, much more expensive than the 206 and even the 207. Peugeot was schizophrenically attempting to move upmarket at the time with the 407 as well. The brand may have once been the French Mercedes but those days were long, long gone by the time this thing came. At least it was customisable like the MINI: the coloured interior trim, such as the plastic surrounds of the dashboard air vents, could be exchanged by the owner very easily, so PSA got that part covered.
It’s funny how some things are just quirky and some things are just downright silly.
The Cactus with the soft plastic cladding is a great solution to door dings in parking lots. That’s quirky. It looks a bit odd, but it works.
Sliding doors, without power assist, are great for loading and unloading in tight spaces. Power doors are great for people with mobility issues, or parents loading or unloading small children. Small city cars with power sliding doors are just downright silly. It added weight, expense, and complexity when light, cheap, and easy was needed.
It makes me wonder if the French do things so differently to be different or to be exasperating?
It’s a cute idea of a car, but I just can’t get past the idiot smiles that afflicted the front end of Peugeots in that time. The 107 was the doofiest-looking of the bunch.
Taking the “Pug” nickname to its logical conclusion. Pug owner, I should know.
A better power to weight ratio and manual sliding doors (which would be lighter) might have made this viable. The manual sliding rear doors in a Mazda5 are a similar size and are quick and easy to operate.
Perhaps a hybrid door setup like the old OSI DAF city car would be better, that had a sliding driver’s door and pillarless front and rear hinged passenger doors like an extended cab pickup
I remember test driving one of these ugly beasts back in 2005 and couldn´t believe how slow the doors were. A sales failure in Spain, being rather more expensive than the 206, and in the end not as practical, lacking (obviously) the five door body option.
Not very good times at Peugeot, the decade of ´00.
Even if it was a sales failure I’ve seen quite a few in Spain, many of them driven by senior citizens that probably found the auto doors, small dimensions and somehow higher seating very convenient. Not sure if that was Peugeot’s intended target though.
Same thing happened with the Toyota Rukus here in Australia (second-generation Scion xB). It was supposed to be a trendy box for young, hip people but it seems to be driven exclusively by senior citizens.
As somebody that owns a van, I can attest that sliding doors are so much easier to get in and out of.
I think that the 1007’s big issue was having electric opening and closing doors. If they used manual doors then that would have been so much better. My van’s doors are manual open/close doors and it is easy to open them and easy to close them
It actually looks cute. I’d consider an electric version with a range of at least 150 miles. Replace the sliders with conventionally hinged doors and put the saved weight into the battery pack.
1969 Chrysler 70X concept. The sliding doors weren’t such a great idea (passenger side just had a single hinged door) but it did possess another feature that was far ahead of its time: it had a radar system that alerted the driver to rear approaching vehicles into one of the 70X’s three blind spots. Quite prescient considering how blind spot monitoring is now widely available in many of today’s vehicles.
I had a van with sliding doors a very long time ago easy to open and close on level ground, handy in tight parking spots( it was a delivery van after all) but the idea still wont fly who will make a third attempt at it, GM Bedford and Peugeot both failed, next.
The 1007 is probably the best exemple of how Peugeot lost their ways with the x07 generation (minus the 307, plus the first gen 308). A shame really. But, at least, it means they bounced back up with (most of) the x08 generation.