About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Peugeot 307

Encyclopedia : P : PE : PEU : Peugeot 307

A red Peugeot 307 CC, a coupé cabriolet with a folding steel roof
Enlarge
A red Peugeot 307 CC, a coupé cabriolet with a folding steel roof

The Peugeot 307 is a small family car produced by the French Peugeot manufacturer since 2001. It was awarded the 2002 European Car of the Year.

Contents

History

The 307 was originally presented as the 307 Prométhée prototype at the 2000 Mondial de l'Automobile. The production hatchback versions were introduced to the European markets in 2001 as a successor to the extremely successful and excellent Peugeot 306, often regarded as the best car in its class until the advent of the Volkswagen Golf Mk IV in 1998, itself usurped by the Opel Astra a few months later the same year.

By the time that the 306 was four years old, it faced new arrivals, most notably the Ford Escort's replacement. With the world alerted to Ford's new found ability with the Mondeo, Ka, Puma and 1996 Fiesta, all of which were class best when launched, the new Ford was eagerly awaited. When the radical Focus was finally launched in 1998, the 306 was not only outclassed, it was now 5 years old with a replacement some years away.

A replacement was much needed, and in 2001, the all-new 307 was finally launched.

Design and engineering

The 307's platform is a development of its predecessors', and was shared with sister company's Citroën Xsara (and its ZX predecessor). However, the car is much larger than the 306 in every direction.

The 307 continued the company's new styling theme first seen on the Peugeot 206 and Peugeot 607. With upswept front lights and a steeply rising bonnet leading to a highly sloped windscreen (and the upright rear doors of the 206), the 307 was a huge departure from its predecessor and re-emphasised the departure from the elegant styling, and sometimes Pininfarina-like design, themes employed on the previous two generations of Peugeots which were first seen on the Peugeot 205, and ended with the Peugeot 406.

Its height is 1.51 m, which is in the middle of the spectrum between small family cars (between 1.40 and 1.45 m) and compact MPVs (between 1.60 and 1.65 m). Some consider the 307 as a low compact MPV rather than a tall small family car, because of its height and profile.

Body styles

At launch, the 307 was launched as a 3- and 5-door hatchback, though in 2002 the 307 range was expanded in 2002 with the introduction of two estates, called the 307 Break and 307 SW. Externally they are almost identical, with the exception that the SW version has silver roof bars and a 3/4 length panoramic glass roof as standard equipment. Internally though, the 307 Break is a conventional estate, while the SW features an optional third row of removable seats so it is more flexible due to its MPV-like configuration. And this is the reason for the SW's existence; Peugeot did not develop a compact MPV spin-off like Citroën did with the Xsara Picasso, instead preferring to offer a more flexible version of its estate but maintaining the style and road manners of an estate.

The 307 CC, a cabriolet with a retractable hardtop, was launched in 2003 to compete against the new European coupé cabriolets.

In 2004, a four-door saloon version of the 307 was launched in China. The 307 is produced for the Chinese market by the Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile, a joint venture with the PSA Group. This model is also biult in Argentina since early 2006.

Engines

Critics

With the 306 being the best car in its class when it was launched in 1993, journalists had very high hopes for the 307, especially as nearly all previous Peugeots in the 1980s and 1990s came high in many road tests when launched, centering mainly on their excellent chassis. Even though many claim the Peugeot 406 was last car to continue that trend in 1995, due to the disappointing Peugeot 607 and Peugeot 206 of 1998, critics were expecting Peugeot to bounce back to form and bring out a car to outclass the dominant and three year old Ford Focus, especially in the area of ride handling.

To the surprise of many this did not happen and the car was deemed disappointing by the motoring press. Interior quality apart (which was superior to the average), the car failed to match to the Ford Focus in any area. The once iconic handling and steering abilities of past Peugeots were lost, while the ride was only average with the dampers only giving average body control and causing too much float.

The styling of the 307 was not universally praised either, the size and proportion making it look like an MPV instead of a small family car, while many critics felt the design, while distinctive, lacked the elegance and cohesiveness of some of the previous generations of Peugeots.

Despite all the critics, the 307 was voted European Car of the Year for 2002.

2005 facelift

In 2005, the 307 was revised to meet the onslaught of rivals which had been launched since the 307's introduction in 2001. Externally, the front of the car was restyled featuring mildy revised lights, a new bonnet and the removal of the trademark Peugeot grille between the headlights. With the latter change, along with a new front bumper, the front of the car was now dominated by a larger air intake, as first established on the Peugeot 407, and which was now effectively the company's new 'grille'.

Internally, the dashboard design remained the same but new, higher quality, materials were used throughout but this new-found quality is still short of that found in the Ford Focus and the Opel Astra, let alone the Volkswagen Golf or even the standard-setting Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series.

Otherwise the car remained the same as before, even dynamically, which meant that not only was it some way short of the Ford Focus Mk I, it was now outclassed by the Mk II version which was now available. Too many motoring critics this was a disappointment following the excellent handling of the larger Peugeot 407.

307 in rallying

The Peugeot 307 WRC, a World Rally Car based on the 307 CC, replaced the very successful 206 WRC in the World Rally Championship in 2004. The vehicle, nicknamed "The Flying Frog" and "The Whale", was plagued by transmission problems and only began to come into its element in competition towards the end of its factory-supported participation in the WRC. It has three WRC victories to its name, but saw its competition life cut short at the end of 2005 by PSA's self-enforced withdrawal from top-level rallying. It topped the podium in the series on the 2004 and 2005 Neste Rally Finland as well as in the 2005 Rally Japan. All the victories were at the hands of double world champion Marcus Grönholm.

However, the 307 WRC will forever be tainted by the accident that befell WRC competitors Markko Märtin and Michael Park on September 18, 2005, which resulted in Park's death. On stage 15 of Wales Rally GB, Märtin lost control of his 307 WRC and collided with a tree, killing Park instantly. This was the first fatality in a WRC event since 1993. 

External links








Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[media]











Peugeot — A marque of PSA Peugeot Citroën — timeline, 1950s-present
[http://encycl.opentopia.com/ edit]


Type
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s


0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9


City car



104


106

107


Supermini
203

204


205

206
207


Small family car


304
305
309
306
307
308


Large family car

403
404


405
406
407


Executive car


504
505







604

605
607


Leisure activity vehicle





Partner


Mini MPV






1007


Large MPV





806
807


SUV




P4



4007






























 





From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.













Search Titles









0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?










E-mail this article to:



Personal Message: