Fire up the Peugeot Partner

A DOUBLE duvet, a mountain bike, and a pile of bags and boxes filled with household clutter. No, not the prizes of some awful Generation Game spinoff but a list of things Peugeots Partner could swallow with ease.

Trips to the tip are the sort of missions where youd want the generously-named Peugeot Partner Teepee Outdoor HDi 115 on your side; it really is family man motoring on a truly utilitarian level. Keen students of all things automotive will have already deduced its the familiar Partner van with an additional helping of windows and seats, but if youre prepared to drop any pretensions of being sporty and go along with its load-lugging groove than youve got the perfect, er, partner. If you strip your family car requirements back to hauling five people and as much luggage as possible, then I challenge you to find a motor more geared up to the task then this one.

Stylish it aint and its a big thing, but the tradeoff is the simply enormous amount of room you get inside, and when you arent using the faintly ridiculous amounts of headroom and legroom in the rear the back seats fold away and the Partner turns back into a van, offering you more luggage space than just about any other people mover for the money. True, the 1.6 version I drove will set you back £17,000 but while I dont think thats too unreasonable, there are plenty of other Partners in the range offering you the same amount of space for even less.

But the best thing about the Partner is that despite its van origins it doesnt alienate drivers who like their vehicles smaller and lower (me, basically). No, its not going to inspire you with its handling in a bleak corner of Britains countryside but it disguises its considerable bulk with a welcome dose of handling aplomb, and on the motorway its a comfortable cruiser which isnt left wanting for turbocharged diesel punch. The only thing Id ask Peugeot to give the Partner for Christmas is a sixth gear, to help improve the already none-too-bad 44mpg I averaged with it.

The Partner isnt a thriller through the corners or a work of art, but it isnt pretending to be. See it for what it is - a tool which dedicates everything at its disposal to moving people and things as efficiently as possible - and its a belter.

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