I was giving a talk to the nice gentlemen at Abertay Probus Club life of a motoring journalist and all that and a few of them stopped to admire the Peugeot RCZ on our way out.
“Ugly duckling, isn’t it?” one of them said. That was the single negative comment the car received during my time with it.
The RCZ is a car that turns heads. During the week I spent with it, I lost count of the number of strangers who gave admiring glances or the colleagues who said ‘flash car you’ve got this week.’
Low, sleek and with that distinctive double bubble roof, there’s no denying it is a stunner. The fact that it’s still a rare sight on our roads Peugeot are only making them in small numbers doesn’t harm its case either.
I was on the car’s launch back in May and liked it then, and spending more time with it deepened my affection for the car.
There are three engines to choose from a 156bhp 2.0 litre petrol, a 2.0 litre diesel with 163bhp, or a turbocharged petrol with 200bhp.
I drove the lower-powered petrol version in GT trim, which comes with nice black leather seats. Performance is nothing startling, but brisk enough. Nought to 62mph comes up in eight seconds dead, while top speed is 135mph. If you want a faster version, get the 200bhp turbo though even that only does 0-62 in 7.5 seconds, which barely even puts it into hot hatch territory these days.
But that’s not what people buy a Peugeot RCZ for. They’re bought for their looks, and those are the car’s strongest suit.
Which isn’t to say that the driving experience is poor. Though slightly firmer than most of Peugeot’s range, due to its low stance, the ride is perfectly comfortable. And while it’s not going to give a Caterham a run for its money, handling is good, with a sharp turn-in and plenty of grip.
Rather than being built from the ground up, the RCZ is based on the 308 platform. This means there’s a big boot 384 litres, or about the same as a Ford Focus. Drop the rear seats and you’ll double the available space to 760 litres.
To be honest, you won’t be losing much by leaving the back seats folded. I had three American girls staying with me during my custody of the RCZ. With a good deal of seat-sliding, puffing, panting and cursing, we eventually got all four of us in there, but it’s not an experience I’d like to repeat. Well, it was but it wasn’t…
The RCZ is most often compared to the TT, and you can see why. Both are clearly aiming at the same buyers. In my opinion and I doubt many who’ve driven them both would argue the TT offers the superior driving experience, with more comfortable suspension, tighter handling and a quieter cabin.
Given that it the TT costs from £27,000-£37,000 (not even counting the RS versions) and the RCZ costs from £20,000-£25,000, the Audi should hang its head if it can’t beat the RCZ dynamically. But it’s expensive and there are too many of them around these days.
The Peugeot is newer, fresher and much cheaper.
Price: £22,750.0-62mph: 8.0 seconds.Top speed: 135mph. Economy: 42.1mpg. CO2 emissions: 155g/km.