Inside & Out:
We had to give it five stars, right. It's by no means the perfectly polished article, but let's focus on the good stuff first. It's stunning. Wider and lower looking in real life than in pictures, it's a real junior supercar. Anywhere you care to focus you'll find a detail to cogitate on, yet the RCZ somehow avoids being too fussy. The bubbled roof and rear screen are works of automotive mass market genius.
Inside it's Peugeot's best cabin for, oh, three or four generations - but perfect it isn't. The pedal placement is weird: they're all too high, and the clutch uncomfortably so. Again, in a fit of classic Peugeot, the company has forgot to give the driver somewhere to rest his or her clutch foot, or put their gloves - the glove box is more a matchbox. But, the design and layout of the cabin is good, as is the quality - especially if you've paid extra for the stitched leather dash top. The boot seems huge because of the barn door opening as well, though as you'd guess it has rear seats in theory only.
Ride & Handling:
Whereas the Audi TT and Volkswagen Scirocco bestow driver enjoyment on their owners by way of being uniformly predictable, like new-build houses, the RCZ drives like a lovely old cottage... you know what we're saying: it has 'character'. Parts of the drive are wonderful, like how quick and darty the steering is, how low you sit in relation to the window sill, and how fruity the 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine sounds.
This, the sportiest version with the most powerful engine, has clearly been set up as the driver's one. And while that's great in the handling stakes - well, as great as a front-wheel drive coupé can be - it does mean putting up with a less than supple ride. Crashy it isn't, but there's an almost constant jiggle to deal with. If big distances are your thing, best go with a diesel in Sport spec on smaller wheels.
Engine & Transmission:
For a six-speed gearbox with a petrol engine the ratios seem a little wide, but it doesn't matter really because the 1.6-litre turbo unit is at its best in the mid-range. It's not an engine worth revving to the hilt. And nor, really, does it feel blisteringly quick, but rather just strong enough: any more and you wonder whether the front tyres would start getting in a tizzy.
But it's good to report that Peugeot has finally managed to crack making a transmission with half decent feel. It's no Honda Civic stick, but most of the east-west in-gear movement that has blighted Peugeot gearboxes is gone. And, finally, the company has dispensed with the 'aluminium' stick top it uses, which, within five minutes, used to feel like a snooker ball covered in phlegm.
Equipment, Economy & Value for Money:
This is where we bring the Germans back in, predictably - but hey, it's what you'll do if you're in the market for an RCZ, right? As you'd imagine, the RCZ isn't cheap but it is better value than the Audi TT. But not that much better: a bottom rung Audi TT 2.0 TFSI Sport is a thousand pounds more than a top-spec RCZ, though once you consider that the Audi has more power and, probably, better residuals (the RCZ's are unproven), it's not that clear cut.
As is increasingly becoming the case, however, it's the Volkswagen that wins in the value stakes: a 2.0-litre TSI Scirocco GT undercuts the Peugeot. And has better back seats. Still, no complaints with the Peugeot's equipment list, which includes leather chairs, parking sensors and all other kinds of value-adding electronic paraphernalia.
