Niche-marketing; where will it end? Are manufacturers providing answers to questions no-one has asked, or do we really need small 'people carriers' such as the Renault Modus, Toyota Yaris Verso, Nissan Note and Ford Fusion. Judging by the numbers on the road, only Renault seems to have captured the car buying public's imagination. So what about the new Peugeot 1007; what does it bring to the party; or is it just a pair of electric sliding doors and no substance?

By Peugeot standards, the 1007 (that's ten-oh-seven, not one-double-o-seven thanks to James Bond copyright...) is a rare sight on UK roads at least. It's not the best looking car in the Peugeot range; it's hard to believe this comes from the same manufacturer that brought us such babes amongst cars as the 205, 504 Coupe, 406 Coupe and even the 405 and 605 saloons (in their day admittedly), although the Peugeot DNA is unmistakable. It's just been arranged differently, the 1007 being tall and boxy, with a short nose and wide mouth.

Unlike the competition, the Peugeot 1007 is strictly a four-seat vehicle, the two seats in the rear being set in towards the centre of the car leaving no space for a third occupant. On the other hand, there is forward and backward movement that allows the compromise (and compromise it will be as total rear legroom/boot space is restricted) between rear leg room and boot space to be adjusted to your personal preference, even if it is really one or the other. And unlike the competition, the Peugeot 1007 has that unique selling point, or rather, a pair of them: the electric sliding doors.

The car's shape is completely compromised by the need to fit the sliding doors, looking tall, narrow and boxy just like Postman Pat's van. So much so that every Peugeot 1007 should come with a free black-and-white cat! And then there is that big aluminium rail that splits the rear quarter panel - the door rail. These doors so dominate the Peugeot 1007 we'll get them out of the way first here.

My initial impression of the doors was of how heavy they were, and secondly how difficult they were to close, and how the handle is the wrong way round to do so comfortably. And then I found the switches! And another pair on the remote control key fob... That changed things completely; now I could open either or both doors automatically, even when locked, while approaching the car. Being so long (the doors go way back past the front seats) rear seat access is excellent and of course there is no worry about someone parking a little too close and not being able to squeeze in the remaining gap. Unless of course they park stupidly close and you can't open the door at all - the sliding door adds about 15cm to the width of the Peugeot 1007 when open (on each side).

The doors are also directly responsible for one of the major problems I found with the Peugeot 1007. This car is firmly aimed at women; women about town with a couple of kids to be precise. And being nearest in size to a woman within The Car Enthusiast offices, I feel best able to comment on the driving position; it's awful! The biggest problem is the one created by the doors; they stretch so far back that the seat belt is also situated too far back. First of all you can't reach it; it really is that far back. And secondly, because it's so far back it fits straight across your neck; if you're my size. It would be even worse if you were shorter, like many women perhaps? And once you've got that seat high up, the steering wheel obscures the top of the dials.

There are plenty of other woes in the driving position that the doors are at least not directly to blame for. The pedal layout is terrible; women might tend to have smaller feet, but at size 7 I'm hardly wearing flippers or clown boots. So why do my feet hit the pedal stalks as well as the pedals? I had two separate contact points on both clutch and brake pedal. Where is my left foot supposed to be when not riding the clutch pedal? Yes, it can go underneath, but because the centre console is very wide down at feet level, and the 1007 fairly narrow, you can't slide your foot sideways to the left and then down under the pedal - you have to pull your foot backwards to clear the pedal that way, which is most uncomfortable and it actually takes a noticeable period of time to do so.

I've not finished with the pedal woes! The throttle pedal is badly positioned; leaving my right foot where it naturally sits, over to the right and resting on the wheel arch, it is impossible to apply full throttle in a single movement. When the pedal was half way down I had to reposition my foot to go the rest of the way down - no wonder the 1007 felt so slow! And finally while I'm on the subject of pedals, I know the name says Peugeot 1007 Sport, but let's face it, this is anything but a sports car, never mind sporty, so why the need for the 'sporty' drilled aluminium pedals? They look so out of place in this car.

Right, moaning over. Well mostly anyway, but first some positives. If your family only need four seats, it's fairly practical with storage and cup holders absolutely everywhere although strangely no bottle holders in those doors, something most competitors seem to have. It's easy to find in a car park, especially if your 1007 is as yellow as ours was. It has a really good stereo, totally distortion free, even at levels of volume normally associated with Saxos and Astra GTEs with occupants wearing back-to-front hats... Not that you need to wind the volume up to hear the stereo, the 1007 is rather quiet, commendably free from wind noise as the doors are closed positively by those electric motors.

All this and we've barely moved off. Well, we know the Peugeot 1007 feels very slow, slower than it really is because of the throttle pedal position, not that 0-62mph in 13.6 seconds and 107mph are indicative of a quick car anyway, but one payoff is the Group 4E insurance. So, it's not very quick, but it rides well like most Peugeots and although a bit floppy round corners (like any tall, thin car), it's not too bad either - like most other Peugeots. In traffic it's probably the smoothest manual gearbox car I've ever driven, capable of crawling along at almost zero mph with no driveline shunt at all, a proper 'feet-off-pedals' situation as it edges along just like an automatic, only even slower. The 1007 is fairly relaxing over distance, mostly because it's so quiet and rides well, but also because it's so slow there's little point rushing.

Our car came fitted with the full length double glass sunroof, where the whole roof is glass and the front part tilts/slides as necessary. This, combined with the large side windows, and even triangular front quarter windows in front of the doors, made our car very airy, but thank goodness for the powerful climate control system which prevented it feeling like driving round in a greenhouse once the sun came out.

At the end of the day, the Peugeot 1007 is either your kind of car, or it's not. There's no room for middle ground on this. It's cheap to insure, not too bad to tax (Group C is currently £125/annum), and it's not too expensive (£11,850) unless you go mad on the options. Our test car came with parking sensors, colour satnav (too far away from the driver) incorporating GSM phone and five CD autochanger, roof bars, electric folding mirrors, cruise control and the JBL hi-fi upgrade. And this little lot tipped the price over £15k! Just as well it's well specified as standard, with automatic climate control, 16-inch alloy wheels, heated mirrors, electric power steering and those electric doors being the highlights.

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Peugeot 1007 UK range overview

- Peugeot 1007 Dolce 1.4 8v : £10,850
- Peugeot 1007 Dolce 1.4 8v 2-Tronic : £11,345
- Peugeot 1007 Dolce 1.6 16v 2-Tronic : £11,850
- Peugeot 1007 Dolce 1.4 HDi 70 : £11,545
- Peugeot 1007 Sport 1.4 8v 2-Tronic : £12,095
- Peugeot 1007 Sport 1.4 16v : £11,850
- Peugeot 1007 Sport 1.6 16v 2-Tronic : £12,600
- Peugeot 1007 Sport 1.4 HDi 70 : £12,295