When I saw Peugeot advertising that they had won What Car? new car of the year the morning after the award ceremony, I was suspicious of a corporate stitch-up. ‘Advertising for awards’ conspiracy theories rushing through my mind. So I phoned Peugeot and requested a test of the winning entry to see what was so special about it.
Because, let’s face it, it is not the most attractive car on the market. Trying to convince a colleague, that I was starting to think it attractive from the front three quarter angle he responded, “yeah absolutely, with your eyes shut.”
But I urge you, do not judge this car on its exterior looks – do as I did and test one.
You’ll want to go for a diesel, because the MPG is around 50. So the first thing you will notice is a little clatter from the engine as you wait at traffic lights. “Ah ha,” you’ll cry, “I knew it wouldn’t be any good!”
Enjoy this moment while it lasts, I know I did and I am glad for that because it is almost the only criticism you can level at this superbly thought-out and incredibly good value car – especially when we’re talking about a nearly new model (see later).
You could of course deny yourself this moment by testing a petrol model, which gives a respectable 39mpg and avoids the heavy old-age servicing costs of the diesel.
In which case you will skip the in-town refinement discussion and sink back into the Peugeot armchairs to enjoy the quiet cruise down the dual carriageway – having got up to fast lane speeds surprisingly easily.
As you nip up and down the ramps in the multi-storey car park, you will rave about the light steering, and the masses of glass all round that give you superb visibility to whizz into your parking space of choice. As long as you park the right way round, you can open the lower half of the split tailgate which gives one of the lowest and easiest loading areas of any car; a boon to new mums with pushchairs.
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| Peugeot 3008 split tail gate |
Safety feature |
If you’re in a specification with panoramic glass (like the Exclusive I tested) and parked on the top floor, you need to remember to touch the roof button that will close the comfort blinds over the panoramic glass ceiling. Otherwise the tan leather seats will be mighty hot when you come back – these are the kind of high-quality problems that life will hold for you if you buy such a lovely specification.
Another is the piece of glass that fold up from the dashboard (again at the touch of a button – everything on this car is at the touch of a button). This allows you to see a projected digital read-out of your speed and distance from the car in front without looking down as far as the speedo. It’s a gizmo that you don’t really need, like most of Volvo’s latest safety devices.
It gets annoyed with you if you can’t maintain the 2 second rule, and I’m sorry but on the A4 coming out of West London, the only way to maintain that gap is with a Police escort, because people just keep pulling into it and if try to slow down and create another, you’ll end up being shuffled back down the queue to East London.
As you can probably tell, I am struggling to find anything bad to warn you about with the 3008 (I even liked playing with the distance read-out). I have perhaps overlooked that the footwell is a bit small, but I fear I am sounding petty now.
It is a worthy award winner and I should probably be ashamed of my cynical knee-jerk conspiracy theories. Next I’ll be trying to convince you that the war in Iraq is really about oil rights.
What’s the market like?
The wonderful thing about Peugeot is they get their cars out onto the used market quickly with lots of great value ex-demos and the like. So within a year of the new car coming out there were a hundred great-value used cars to choose from and within 2 years this will hopefully be up to 1,000 cars.
A £20,000 ‘Exclusive’ model, with lots of extras included can be found for £15,000 with less than 5,000 miles on the clock.
What else can this budget buy?
The Renault Scenic is the nearest comparison and because there are so many on the market they are cheaper at present. But then, they are not as clever either. Within a couple of years prices will be more comparable.
Looking at Ford’s C-Max, or Vauxhall’s Zafira or even Volkswagen’s Touran, they are all very similar in price.
Summary
A thoroughly modern family car that also has style and is available at competitive prices on the nearly new market.
Words: Matthew Tumbridge