Peugeot Traveller Review 2024

If you need to carry loads of people, be they adults or children, then you might have lots of pressures on your finances from different directions. The Peugeot Traveller’s competitive running costs and comparatively lower purchase price stands strongly in its favour as a result.

Plenty of seven-seater cars, be they MPVs or SUVs, don’t have much space in the third row, but that isn’t the case with the Peugeot Traveller – all passengers get a decent amount of space and there is still room for luggage. If you are the designated driver for a netball team and need to take all the club kit then the Peugeot Traveller could be ideal.

The Peugeot Traveller gets a good amount of kit as standard, so those with an eye on value will be quite happy with not upgrading to anything bigger or more well specified. The 1.5-litre engine, which is also the cheapest on offer, is also a strong economic option as it is the most efficient in the range.

The 2.0-litre 150PS is another one to consider if you are likely to be carrying a heavy load a lot of the time, or if you are towing. The extra torque will be welcome on hilly routes and for overtakes for example.

If you want a little more luxury, then the Peugeot Traveller Allure is well equipped, but it is a serious step up in money, with it costing more than £6500 more brand new.

The closest model to the Peugeot Traveller is the Citroen SpaceTourer, which is fundamentally identical to the Peugeot with Citroen’s twist on it. As of 2019 the same goes for the Vauxhall Vivaro Life.

Other van-based MPVs from mainstream manufacturers include the Ford Tourneo Custom and the Volkswagen Caravelle. The Mercedes-Benz V-Class offers a little more luxury and is a rival for the range-topping versions of the Traveller.

The materials on offer in the Peugeot Traveller are more van than car on the whole, which is somewhat inevitable given the vehicle’s commercial underpinnings. The plastics are generally hard and seem more geared towards withstanding a hard day’s work than impressing a car-load of business execs.

The higher trims get much more in the way of interior decoration, with some chrome-effect elements and higher trims get a leather dotted around the cab, but they can’t quite cover up the swathes of plastic.

The standard version comes with cloth seats, with different designs on the basic Active and Business models. The Allure gets plenty of details that are covered in more luxurious materials, though, with the steering wheel, gear lever and surround clad in leather. There are also touches of brushed aluminium and leather seats.

These leather seats are also heated and get electric adjustment. The massage function is a nice touch, too.

The Peugeot Traveller might come with plenty of kit, but it doesn’t offer the same feeling of high-tech luxury that you get in rivals like the Volkswagen Caravelle.

The seven-inch infotainment touchscreen comes included on all versions and you get Bluetooth and USB connectivity as standard. The screen on the Peugeot Traveller isn’t the latest version, but it is smart and relatively easy to work once you have got used to its particular methods. It can be a little slow to respond at times, though.

The stereo system comes with four speakers and four tweeters as standard but this is upgraded on the higher trim so you get five speakers, four tweeters and a subwoofer. The higher version also gets voice control for the various features. One of these features is satellite navigation, which can come with TomTom Live updates and speed camera alerts, although both are paid extras. You don’t have to go up to the top trim to get the navigation, as it’s available as a cost option on all models.

However, many won’t see the need given that the basic model comes with Mirror Screen – Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The Peugeot Traveller is available in two lengths, both based on the same wheelbase, but there has been a compact version, too. The standard wheelbase makes the car 4959mm long, 2204 wide and 1900mm tall, the long wheelbase ends up at 5309mm long. 

The Compact model doesn’t have much in the way of rear boot space when all eight of the seats are in place, with just 280 litres on offer. Peugeot now only offers the more practical Standard and Long versions, with both providing much bigger and more useful luggage areas. The standard model has a 640-litre boot that is far bigger than many MPVs and SUVs, even with their rearmost seats folded. 

The upright shape of the Traveller means that you might have to stack some suitcases on top of one another, or stand them upright, to get the full use of that 640 litres. The long model offers a frankly vast boot, with 989 litres of space below the top of the seats.

It’s hard to think of many day-to-day requirements that won’t be met by that space, but if you need more room then the seats can be folded down fairly easily, or even taken out completely.

If you do take the seats out entirely then you’ll probably need a friend to help – the seats are quite big and heavy – but once you do then you’ll be rewarded with a space that is almost as big as the van on which the Traveller is based. Remove all the rear-most seats and you’ll get 3497 litres of room, which means you’ll basically be driving a well-appointed van. Unsurprisingly.

When the seats are in, there is plenty of room for all of those behind the front part of the cabin, and the seats can be slid forward and backwards to maximise space for any row that has a particularly tall passenger in. You can also recline the seats to get a little more comfortable.

The sliding side doors and relatively high-up ride height mean that getting children in and out is all the easier, especially in tight parking spots. You get three ISOFIX fittings as standard on all models, all in the middle row. 

For those families with sextuplets (or two pairs of triplets or three sets of twins…) you can get six Isofix points, something no standard seven seat MPVs or SUVs can match.

All versions come with a full-size steel space-saver spare wheel.

Although there are four engines in the Peugeot Traveller range you don’t have quite as much choice as that suggests. The 1.5-litre 120PS and 2.0-litre 150PS diesels are both only available with a six-speed manual gearbox while the 120PS 2.0-litre and 177PS 2.0-litre diesels are both auto only.

A 1.5-litre engine might sound relatively small for such a big van but it is a strong unit that promises the best economy of the range although it isn’t exactly rapid. The 221Nm of torque will help when it comes to pulling away and heading up hills, but a 0-62mph time of 12 seconds isn’t that quick.

The performance model in the range, the 177PS 2.0-litre, is comparatively swift, though, managing the same sprint in 8.8 seconds. This version is the most relaxed companion for motorway driving but the 150PS 2.0-litre diesel is a commendable performer too.

Other engines have featured in the Traveller’s past, too – a 1.6-litre diesel came before the 1.5-litre. There were two power outputs – 95PS and 115PS – and the lower powered of the two struggled to cope with the Traveller’s bulk. The 115PS fares better but isn’t exactly brisk.

The six-speed manual gearbox and the eight-speed auto are both strong upgrades on the previous five-speed manual and automated manual that went before. Where the previous versions were slow and jerky, the latest ones are smooth and much more pleasant to drive.

The biggest cause of noise in the Peugeot Traveller isn’t the engines but rather the road and wind. The huge interior means that the sounds that make their way into the cabin can reverberate around somewhat. The seats absorb a fair bit of that, but passengers in the third row will have a noisier experience than those further up.

The four engines all manage to keep noise and vibration largely in check, though, which makes motorway cruising quite relaxed. This isn’t always the case, though, and you get a bit of a crash through the cabin when the Traveller encounters potholes or bumps in the road.

The older 1.6-litre engines are slightly noisier, especially under hard acceleration and at a standstill, but it isn’t enough that it would ruin your experience or have you shouting at the kids any louder than you would do ordinarily on a long journey.

The Peugeot Traveller sailed through its 2015 Euro NCAP crash test with five stars, with strong performances in all the categories, particularly child occupant protection where it managed 91%.

This will have been thanks in part to its many ISOFIX points, but a decent number of airbags will have helped too. The driver and passenger both get front and side airbags as standard while the higher trims add rear curtain ‘bags too.

Other standard kit includes a driver attention alert system and cruise control with a speed limiter. The Allure and Business Plus models add blind spot monitoring and the Peugeot SOS system that alerts the emergency services in the case of a crash.

The optional Safety Pack brings a load more kit, including automatically dimming headlights, speed limit recognition, adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning while the Drive Assist Pack brings autonomous emergency braking and a distance alert that warns you if you get too close to the car in front or a pedestrian in the road.

The Traveller is based on the Peugeot Expert van which has a good reliability record, so this should prove as durable. That said, Peugeot as a brand doesn't have the best record for reliability. In the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, Peugeot finished 24th out of 30 brands for overall satisfaction and although owners did at least score the make 8.82 out of 10 for reliability. 

There is a wide gap between the insurance groups of the various Peugeot Travellers, with the cheaper models fitting into group 17E – all the 1.5-litre models are in this group.

The majority of the 2.0-litre 150PS models are in group 21E, but you step up a group for Allure in the standard length while the Long model goes up one more to 23E.

The most powerful model in Business VIP trim is the most expensive to insure and sits in group 29E.

Because of their size, none of the Peugeot Travellers enjoy that low a CO2 rating and VED band, with the 1.5-litre diesel the lowest at 169g/km which puts it into band I. The long models with the more powerful engines emit more than 190g/km, which puts them into band K.

Thankfully the latest versions are RDE2 compliant, which means a slightly lower first-year VED bill, but it is still into four figures for the more expensive models. These high CO2 ratings mean that all models fit into the highest possible bracket for company car tax, too.

Prices for new Peugeot Traveller models start above £30,000, but used models represent good value. You can get a five year old model with average miles for around £21k. Obviously there are lots of higher mileage models around for cheaper, most will have been used for private hire business. Don't let that put you off if they have been regularly serviced and are cheap enough. 

The Peugeot Traveller Active trim provides all you really need, and means that you don’t end up spending too much money on it. The most economical 1.5-litre diesel is only available in Peugeot Traveller Active, and it comes with kit like the seven-inch screen and the smartphone mirroring that allows you to use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The two packs worth considering are the Safety Pack and Drive Assist Pack, with both bringing technology that will make living with a big vehicle that bit easier.

Upgrading to the long model or the bigger engine adds lots to the price, which means that the Peugeot Traveller can get very expensive and should only really be done if you absolutely need the space.