peugeot.co.uk

**HAVE RE-WRITTEN THIS REVIEW 12TH APRIL 2004, IN LINE WITH ADDITIONS TO WEBSITE**

THINKING OF BUYING A NEW PEUGEOT?

Car showrooms in particular, can appear a little intimidating to some folks and I can understand why. If your really not sure exactly what your looking for and haven't thought your options through, why not save yourself the bother of a trudge round the showroom and take yourself on a virtual tour courtesy of WWW.PEUGEOT.CO.UK.? Here you can relax and let your fingers do the browsing, it will certainly take the stress out of choosing your new car. So what of the website itself? Let's take a gander ...

LAYOUT, NAVIGATION & CONTENT

The overall appearance of this website is simplistic at first glance - with subjects of interest placed within four main drop-down headings, I'll get back to those shortly. The site is presented in Peugeot's uniform blue colours and the homepage is relatively uncluttered and organised in it's presentation. Pride of place is jointly reserved for interchanging pictures of the 307CC and the spanking new 407 which is scheduled for release in May this year (2004) and has already generated quite a stir both within the motoring press and amongst existing customers. The latest offers from Peugeot ie, free insurance/0% finance on selected models are given their own section headed "latest offers" to the right of the homepage. Also featured on the homepage is a section devoted to the latest rally news - currently taking place in New Zealand. Here you can view the team positions and keep up with all the interviews and any tec data on the cars. The new 307 rally car has all it's specs' here and plenty of photos too.

So, what if I wanted to make an enquiry on a model, how do I go about it? Here's a step by step guide. Firstly, you need to take a look at those four menus I was telling you about earlier. The four menus & their sub-indexes are:

SHOWROOM - model range/build your own car/build your own van/accessories/used cars & vans/latest offers/brochures, prices & spec's

SERVICE AND FINANCE - dealer locator/financial services/after sales/motability/fleet/co2 emissions/insurance

COMPANY INFORMATION - about Peugeot/careers/motorsport uk/Peugeot export

OWNER SERVICES - my Peugeot/my Peugeot registration/logon

Okay, so now we know what our choices are - so to begin my enquiry I click on "showroom", then "model range" which takes me to a rather boring (sorry!) blue grid like screen with all the major models displayed in number format ie; 206 etc. So let's assume I want to look for information on 307's - if I hover my mouse over "307" it offers another selection of choice so it narrows the search down to 3dr,5dr, SW or Estate. I choose "5dr". From here, it takes you to a screen with some more headings from which to choose from. These are:

DESIGN
COMFORT
SAFETY & SECURITY
PERFORMANCE
TECHNOLOGY
307 RANGE

If you really aren't sure what model best suits your requirements and needs as a family, it's a good idea to head straight to "RANGE" - this brings up all the variations of that model. The other options are there to give a basic overview and understanding and read more simply than a brochure would. So from here I go to "307 Range", there are 5 variations to select from so I pick Envy. On clicking this brings up some text in scroll down format, as well as a picture in the main box above. Whilst not intended as an "in-depth guide this is very useful information and enough to eliminate certain models from your enquiries before entering your local showroom with some knowledge in hand, to take your test drive. If all you are after is a brochure, you can go into "showroom" then use the drop down box and select "brochures/prices/specs". Once in (see pic at foot of review) select your model and it will take you into Acrobat reader where you can download the whole brochure OR merely glance through it's pages. Cool eh!

BUILDING ONE FROM SCRATCH - NO FACTORY REQUIRED!

All dealer websites from Porsche - Volvo have a configurator in which you can "build" your ideal model on-line, selecting various extras an so on and being able to view the finished product, complete with price. This one on the Peugeot website is relatively straightforward and using it should not give you any headaches! Take yourself back to those four main menus and select "showroom" then "build your own car". Once in it's a case of more drop-down boxes after selecting your model, you can then choose:

BODY STYLE/FUEL TYPE/ENGINE/GEARBOX/MIN' PRICE/MAX' PRICE

So. easy peasy then! Click NEXT on your right, this shows you how your options have narrowed the search down and from these you must select one. That done you will be required to choose a paint colour/interior trim - then click NEXT again. You will find yourself in the OPTIONS section, here you can select parking aids/cruise control and so on. Tick any boxes that you want to apply and click NEXT, you'll be pleased to find this takes you to your final screen that contains an "order like" form detailing all off your selections and a picture of the car you have "designed" and a breakdown of the price. You can either print this (to take with you to the showroom perhaps?) or save it to your computer. Ta da!!! (see pic at foot of review of configurator)

ARE YOU A MOTABILITY CUSTOMER?

Motability customers, existing and prospective - get their own section giving a guide to which models are currently available on the scheme as well as the deposits on this which fluctuate (much to the annoyance of the salesmen/myself!) from time to time.

If you aren't sure if you qualify under the scheme then check out the "How it Works" section -to get to this bit click on "discover Peugeot" then "Motability" and all questions should be answered. Generally speaking, if you receive the higher disability allowance/war pension then you should qualify for the contract hire scheme.


TAXING STUFF..

Another useful feature is the Co2 emission/tax brackets that are here to check to compare prices between the models. This was brought into enforcement in March 2001, and means the size of your engine is no longer relevant to cost - but what your pride and joy pumps out of it's exhaust that matters. These emission bands have a tendency to be a little confusing and at work I always have to consult my emissions chart to work these out, as memory fails me!

This could be useful to know before purchasing, for example a 206 1.4 Petrol will only be £105 for a years road fund. You can search by model or tax band here. Please note the site only calculates a years RFL not 6mth.

GRASPING THE 'CONCEPT'...

Also founds nestling in the bottom corner of the home page is a section for Concept cars. Clicking on this you will find a list of 21 concept cars dating from 1984's Quasar to the bang up to date 407 Silhouette & Elixir concepts. On choosing which one you want to view you can then see multiple photos/drawings covering different angles and can read about the designer's inspiration in the comprehensive text given on the left side. Streaming video footage can also be viewed to for extra enjoyment. Although these cars can appear a little far fetched in some of their designs, do not be fooled into thinking they are fantasy! Far from it. This is where the 206CC and 307CC were lifted after public demand sent both models into production and into our showrooms - albeit with slight modifications to the original idea. These designs show us where Peugeot intend to make changes in their future ranges and allow a little free reign on the creativity front!

GOODBYE, FAREWELL, AUF WIEDERSEHN ....

To conclude this review, I found this a comprehensive site which was logical in it's layout and the pages were quick to load up and simple to navigate. Go take a look - no salesmen, PROMISE !!!

Thanks for reading and I hope you find this useful in some capacity! Please check out the pics at foot of this review.

Shona, 2004