When i was a kid we had a Bedford Dormobile. That thing took us all over the place. Scotland, Wales, Germany, Switzerland in fact all over Europe. It was brilliant. It was always full of people to, friends, family, bikes, dogs, you name it, my dad probably had it in that dormobile at one time or another.
Years later i have my own family. We have had various people carriers, from Zafira to Galaxy but they all have the same issues and that is simply not enough space for a busy family. They do a great job of the school run, but if you want to load up and go anywhere, even a big shop, you struggle for space.
We’ve toyed with the idea of a bigger vehicle, like a VW Transporter or Transit Tourneo but the VW ‘scene tax’ prices them way out of reach and the Transit feels a bit too much like a van.
Recently, Peugeot let us use one of their Travellers for a week. We weren’t convinced to start with, It looked a bit like a big orange van with windows but we thought we’d give it a go.
That first morning, the chaos train that is our family made its way out of the front door, book bags, pack ups, football kit and homework in hand, towards the Traveller for the first time.
I pressed the remote fob to unlock the bus and the side door slid open gracefully on it’s own. The kids almost exploded in awe. Everyone piled in, and for the first time since i can remember, no one argued about who sits where. Everyone got there own roomy leather seat with plenty of space all around……heaven.
Off we went on the daily cross town hell that is the school run. Me, the misses and the 4 kids. There are 3 drop offs; 1st drop was no2 and no3 children to their secondary school, 2nd drop was no4 child to her primary and last drop is no1 child to his college. By the time we got to the first drop off the kids has christened the Traveller ‘the mothership’ and vowed to never give it back. It was like a scene from Lord of The Flies. They owned it now.
Over the next week the Mothership became part of the family, endearing itself to anyone who took the time for more than a passing glance.
I took it on a 400 mile road trip for work, up and down the motorways, it did the school run, it collected and delivered family and friends, took one son to and from football, took the girls to the stables and back and more. It very quickly became invaluable but at the same time, despite the extra room, it was easy and simple to live with.
Peugeot Travellers (it really should have been called the mothership) come in two trim levels; Active and Allure.
Active comes with a 7″ Colour Touchscreen with MirrorLink®, Rear parking sensors, Automatic dual zone climate control, Fog lights & LED daytime running lights and Cruise Control with speed limiter.
Allure has all of these plus Full leather interior trim, 3D Connected Navigation with voice recognition, Twin hands-free electric sliding side doors, 180° Colour reversing camera and 17″ Phoenix alloy wheels.
Both come in standard and long wheelbase variants and the Allure is even available as a short wheelbase.
Engine choice depends on specification, but options are; 1.6L BlueHDi 115bhp, 2.0L BlueHDi 150bhp and 2.0L BlueHDi 180bhp, with either a 6 speed manual or an excellent 6 speed automatic gearbox. The auto really is a peach.
Our car had the 2.0L BlueHDi 150bhp, mated to the 6 speed automatic gearbox. This package was simplicity itself to drive. Cruise control and speed limiter came in very handy on our congested motorways, and the reversing camera made it a doddle to park just about anywhere.
Steering was light and the subtle suspension and smooth ride made the mothership feel like you’re in a limousine, particularly with the sumptuous leather seats.
Travellers start at around £32k, with our test car sitting somewhere around £40k. A Ford Galaxy with a similar specification would be around £35k+ and an Audi Q7 starts at over £50k.
We highly recommend trying one for yourself, we fell in love with it. It makes a fantastic companion, a do it all tool, one size fits all vehicle, literally!