We owned a Peugeot 205 many years ago, courtesy of a dear friend. He kindly donated it to us when he became too old to drive safely, only for it promptly to be written off by my husband who drove it into a wall to avoid hitting a sheep!

So now, years later I found myself in the 205’s upgraded self – a 2009 Peugeot 207 courtesy of a Peugeot Service Department as my 807 was dispatched for some repairs. I should add that this isn’t the car featured in Debby’s video above, which was lent to us by the nice people at Peugeot UK…

Having been used to a diesel automatic, with an engine not quite large enough for the size of the 807, it was rather a joy to slip the 207 into gear and zip away. My mood immediately lightened, distracted from thoughts of impending repair bills.

Unfortunately, this all coincided with a self-catering, boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads. We had a long journey ahead in our new small friend and frankly we approached it with some trepidation.

But instead of the miserable, cramped journey that we had been anticipating (the 207 is, whichever way you cut it, smaller than an 807), we had a lovely trip with luggage and provisions fitting nicely into the impressive boot, husband not too cramped in the passenger seat and toys mercifully limited due to the normal-sized cabin.

The only complaint from said husband was when I refused to overtake numerous lorries on the A-roads. This however, is no reflection on the 207, but rather on my driving, having endured a near-death experience a couple of years ago with the aforementioned under-powered 807 and a huge lorry hurtling towards me.

Apart from the slow journey then, there were no further complaints and we arrived at our destination full of beans (literally, thanks to a Little Chef) with plenty of petrol still in the tank.

I suspect there’d be even more fuel left in the tank had we been in the new Economique (doesn’t “economical” sound better in French?) derivative of this best-selling Peugeot, which not only produces 99g/km of CO2 but is exempt from tax. It’s little wonder that sales of the 207 are very good despite all the other new Peugeots on the market (see our recent 3008 test here for instance).

We suddenly wondered whether our friends and neighbours had been right all along to sneer at our enormous people-carrier, while they smugly drove their nippy city cars.

Who needs big, gas guzzling monsters, which only encourage you to pack for all eventualities when a smaller, greener car will do? If only we could afford to downsize!