IT was a crisp, sunny October morning as a motoring colleague took me to one side and gently chastised me for arriving at the event with my soft-top car firmly in hard-top mode.

“You’re in Britain on a lovely day, driving a convertible. For goodness sake, put the roof down and make the most of it.”

Phil was right, as usual. And excuses for not putting down the roof as often as possible on modern drop-tops are pretty hard to come by.

Few cars still put you through the old roadster rigmarole of manually folding the roof and clipping covers on to hard-to-use fasteners.

Like so many modern motors, the task of transforming the Peugeot 207 CC from a coupé to a convertible is a push-button affair and takes seconds. It’s clever stuff, with the roof storing itself neatly away inside the boot, turning a good-looking car into a great one.

The 207 CC, the successor to the 206 CC, the world’s best-selling small coupé cabriolet, is a surprisingly sophisticated little car and great fun to drive.

Hop inside and a classy dashboard stretches out, with chic instrument dials, behind a chunky leather-trimmed steering wheel.

The GT version sits on 17-inch alloy wheels with aluminium doorsill kick panels and pedals, and comes with everything from automatic dual-zone air conditioning and electrically folding rear view mirrors, to electro-chrome interior rear-view mirror, and rear parking sensors.

Even the headlights provide that little extra, using a system with two additional lights mounted in the main headlamps, switching on as you turn the wheel to give better lighting of the inside of corners.

At first glance, the 207 CC looks for all the world like a two-seater, but there are two seats in the rear and, speaking from experience, it is possible to fit a 21-year-old in the passenger seat and fit another 21-year-old behind them in the rear seat.

It is also possible to drive for 75 miles in this configuration, but I don’t recommend it. The rear seat passenger emerges hunched and visibly unhappy.

With the roof up, the boot is surprisingly spacious, and for two people, the cabin inside the car provides all the space you could wish for.

If you plan to travel with the roof down, then a flexible roller blind across the boot, with its own position sensor, protects and separates the space available for luggage from that required for the folded roof. If you attempt to fold down the roof when the blind is not in place, a warning beep sounds and the roof will not fold.

To fully enjoy the ‘cabriolet’ configuration even when parked, the boot is protected by a permanent locking system.

Once locked, the boot can only be unlocked in two ways – via the third button on the remote control key plip, dedicated to the boot, or from within the car when the key is in the ignition, by pressing the central locking control switch mounted on the fascia.

So if you happen to be out and about in a convertible and there is the slightest whiff of decent weather, then drop the top in Phil Llewellin’s memory and enjoy the rush of fresh air.

  • Price: £18,895
  • Insurance group: 10E
  • Fuel consumption (Combined): 57.6mpg
  • Top speed: 119mph
  • Length: 403.7cm/158.9in
  • Width: 197.2cm/77.6in
  • Luggage capacity: 15.8 cu ft (roof up)
  • Fuel tank capacity: 11 gallons/50 litres
  • CO2 emissions: 127g/km
  • Warranty: 3 years/60,000 miles