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Peugeot RCZ Coupe Leasing Deals

Details	Fuel	From Price
Peugeot RCZ Coupe 1.6THP 156ps GT	Petrol	£349.00 inc p/month
Peugeot RCZ Coupe 2.0HDi 163ps GT	Diesel	£359.00 inc p/month

All deals subject to availability and finance approval.

RCZ Coupe

The French, or as groundskeeper Willie refers to them 'Cheese eatin surrender monkeys' (Google it), are renowned throughout the world as one of the most stylish cultures around. They gave us people like Coco Chanel, Catherine Deneuve & the simply stunning Brigitte Bardot all of who had more individual style than David Beckham, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and, even though this is hard to believe, Myself put together.

It has always been the same with their fashion houses too! They have Christian Dior, Christian Louboutin, Christian Lacroix and Jean-Paul Gaultier while the rest of the world (excluding Italy which is the only country that can compete with the French here) have to make do with names like Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Next or Primark. Although I hear that Primark are the new Prada......

But for the past few years the French car manufacturers have been letting the side down in the style department with cars like the Renualt Aventime and Vel Sartis, Peugeot 1007, 3008, 4007, 5008 and any Citroen you can think of after the SM. Until recently, Peugeot had managed it just once with the wonderfully stylish 406 Coupe. Unfortunately that was styled by Pininfarina who are Italian so therefore doesn't count.

At this point I would like to go back to the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2010. For those who are unaware of this glorious event held every summer, it is basically a car porn show for petrolheads! Virtually every car manufacturer under the sun is represented in one form or another and the cars on display range from Bugatti Veyrons to Formula 1 cars, all of which run up the Goodwood Hill infront of 150,000 over 3 days at the beginning of July.

I have been before and absolutely loved it but 2010 was much more special for me, I was not only driving in this exclusive event but nerve-rackingly, I was to give a friends 1 of 15, �1.5 million Lamborghini Reventon Roadster a proper thrashing for the crowd!

Now I know that little paragraph was a tad off topic and I'll admit that there was a small amount of 'OI LOOK WHAT I DID' about it too but I am coming to my point so bear with me!

I woke up at 8am on the Saturday morning feeling fresh as a daisy which could only mean one of 2 things, 1) I was completely sober and hadn't drunk anywhere near the amount of alcohol I thought I had, or 2) I was still rather merry from the rather exuberant nights partying till 4am with the Ginetta boys and girls in the Winnebago next door to ours. I have a feeling it was option 2 because after I had got dressed, legged it to the supercar paddock because we were running late, uncovered the car, drove the car all of about 50 yards only to be told we had to reverse park down hill as they were running 45 minutes behind etc... the hangover really started to creep in and with no water and no food I started to see things... or at least I thought I was because ahead of the Veyron, Zonda and 599 GTO was a car with A PEUGEOT BADGE!! JESUS what the hell did Rick Parfitt Jnr put in my drink to make me see things like that??(nice bit of z-list name dropping for you there)

The thing was, I wasn't seeing things because 4 cars up was the new Peugeot styled RCZ in all it's Bronze coloured glory, and I have to say that in terms of style it put a hell of a lot of other cars in that convoy to shame as it is simply stunning. So I made a (fuzzy) mental note to myself to speak to Peugeot and arrange for a demonstrator asap. The drive up the hill was simply epic but I will go in to more detail about that if we get enough requests to do so.

The demo arrived in January (huge waiting list apparently) in the form of a 2.0HDi GT with 163 bhp. My first impressions were WOW... well done Peugeot! This car is what I would describe as unconventionally stunning! From the sweeping side profile to the bubble roof and rear window, Peugeot have managed what I can only describe as a visual masterpiece for this type of money. Ok, the front end is typical Peugeot but it's very easy to forgive it that!

Put the RCZ in a car park next to its rivals and it makes the TT look dull and the Scirocco look dated and boring (which is some going because I love the Scirocco). Inside, you have a very well laid out cabin with plenty of space (excluding the rear seats which are clearly only there for comedy value). The drive is very good too, although I will say that the diesel engine felt like it could use an extra 25-30bhp but it does handle well through the corners and the body roll is kept to a minimum, even when pushed and the tyres are starting to tell you enough is enough. The fact that you car turn the passenger airbag off meant that my 14 month old son was able to sit in the front (good job really as he'd never have fit in the back let alone his car seat) which both he and I really enjoyed and think that it should be a standard feature on all cars.

I really like this car even to the point where I asked the MD if I could have one as a company vehicle. Unfortunately we have a minimum 5 door car policy which is REALLY disappointing but just means that I will have to try and tap up Peugeot for a 6 month demo programme.

Thanks for reading

Stuart McKay