THE French love family life and it shows in the Peugeot 5008 series of SUVs.

While Peugeot's platform of the smaller 3008 has simply been extended to offer more room and luggage space the powertrains are common.

To quickly recap on the powertrains. You have the award winning 1.2-litre 130bhp PureTech turbo petrol unit with manual and automatic transmission options, the 1.6-litre THP turbo petrol 165bhp automatic plus turbo-diesels consisting of 1.6 BlueHDi 100bhp manual, 1.6 120bhp manual/automatic, 2.0 150bhp manual, 2.0 180bhp automatic and a new 1.5 BlueHDi 130bhp manual unit with lower CO2 emissions from 106g/km is now joining the line-up.

The 131bhp 1.2 triple-pot petrol, a mainstay of the PSA brand and iscapable of pulling the 1,370kg 5008 Allure along and works seamlessly with the sophisticated six-speed automatic gearbox so long as it's not heavily loaded. Fuel consumption is modest when used by the driver or with a single passenger.

The low noise level only rises a bit as the engine is pressed to perform and more sound comes from the road and suspension most of the time. Wind noise is low.

The performance is good, easy flowing and with judicious use of the gearbox in manual mode it can be coaxed around traffic with little problem.

The powertrain's refinement is a perfect match for the 5008 Allure, with its sophisticated secondary controls and displays infront of the driver and on the centre fascia. I am not a fan of the fussy info-display which requires a distracting amount of time to work your way through the menus if driving and need to change something.

It has a very good heating and ventilation system once you set it up and fills the big cabin with air at desired temperature and comes withpowered windows as well for convenience.

Oddments space is very good, the boot loads just below waist-height and quickly expands with quick folding or removable seats.

The seats are very big and well padded and shaped for comfort and will accommodate child-seats very easily. Access is good from the sides and through the back door, but the legroom is short in the rearmost pair of seats.

Ride comfort is smooth, most of the time, and there's little pitching or rolling. It can easily cope with most potholes.

It's not a high performance engine but the handling makes the most of what is there and its road-holding is good. The turning circle is not particularly tight but steering is fairly light in operation.

Visibility is good to front and sides but that high tail and roofline restrict what you can see over the shoulder and to the rear so the sensors really come into their own.

Just because you have a family car, the Peugeot 5008 proves you don't have to cut corners on creature comforts and it's highly specified with individual aids and packs.