At Geneva, the Peugeot 308 won the coveted European Car of The Year award and although
here at Auto Express we didn't quite agree it was better than the Mercedes S-Class and
the BMW i3, this estate version has all the chances of becoming a class leader.
It's got an enormous boot, a new range of efficient Euro Six engines and more space
than before, so we're here in France to find out what it's like.
High-spec cars come with LED headlights at the front and rear and big, smart alloy wheels.
Inside, it has the same 9.7-inch touchscreen as the hatch too, which controls everything
from the air-con, to the sat-nav and the media system plus a new range of connected apps.
Family cars like the 308 SW are all about space and Peugeot certainly has done its homework
in this regard.
As you can see, the loading area is nice, wide with a low-loading lip so it's easy to
lift stuff into the boot.
There's also 610-litres of space here and that's because this car is about 33cm longer
than the hatch version.
There are a few niggles like this parcel shelf which feels pretty cheap and it certainly
doesn't have the strongest action in the world, but if you pull one of these handles like
that, then the seat bases for the rear seats pop out and fold down to leave you with a
perfectly flat loading bay so it's nice and easy to slide big heavy items into the boot
and in this position, it leaves you with 660 litres of space which is very impressive and
better than in most cars in the class above.
Luckily for us, the 308 SW is not just an estate version of the standard car.
No, Peugeot has also chosen this time to introduce four new engines to the range - two petrol
and two diesel.
We're driving one of the petrols, and it's the new PureTec 1.2-litre direct injection
turbo.
It makes 128bhp and 230Nm of torque.
It's a bit like the 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine you get in the Ford Focus estate which means
it's got a very distinctive three-cylinder character but it's actually surprisingly refined
here in this car.
It revs quite strongly, responds nicely and it essentially replaces the old 1.6-litre
engine in the range.
Now, it's even very quiet so far, but if you press the 'Sport' button down here, you get
a bit of a sharper throttle response, weightier steering and also if you drop down a gear,
you get a much more distinctive engine note.
The other nice thing about sport mode is that you get a little dial up here that tells you
how much power and torque you're using at any given time.
It works off of the throttle sensor, but it's actually quite fun.
Here, now it tells me I'm using 27bhp, but if I put my foot down a little harder, now
I'm using 95bhp and then you can pretty quickly rev it all the way up to 128bhp being used
through the front wheels.
The six-speed gearbox is a little bit vague if I'm honest and the handling is pretty much
the same as the hatch.
It's very comfortable on certain roads, but the wrong surface change can make it thud
around a little.
It's very dependant on wheel-size, and if you want my advice, I would stick the 15-inch
or 16-inch alloy wheels rather than going for the bigger, prettier wheels which thump
around a lot more on a rough surface.
We definitely prefer the 308 as an SW rather than a hatch, but I have to say, that there
are still some niggles that annoy me.
These seats don't have a lot of side-support, so when you're cornering you can feel yourself
slipping around, the rear seats - well they've got more leg-room than before but they're
still mounted quite high so tall passengers have to be careful, particularly if you spec
the optional panoramic sunroof.
And it also makes quite a lot of un-necessary bongs.
I've pulled up here in the street and if I open the door without putting the handbrake
on, then as you can hear, it sounds like we're about to have a plane crash.
It makes makes all sorts of other annoying noises too if you've left the lights on, or
the keys aren't where they should be and that can get a little grating after a while and
the sat-nav isn't as great as it should be, either.
So, the new Peugeot 308 as we've seen is a bit more a beach cruiser than a GTi.
Still, the new PureTec engine is a real highlight and as a whole package, it feels mature, grown
up and incredibly practical as well.
It might not be the best car in its class - I have to say, I think the SEAT Leon ST
probably pips it as an an all round package - still, at £19,000 for the Active model,
it's certainly worth a look if you're in the market for this type of car.
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