New Peugeot 308 Review - 1.2T GT-Line

Peugeot has a potential local class-leader on its hands with its all-new Golf rivalling 308. It has landed European Car of The Year in 2014 and the turbo-triple powering it, itself has won International Engine of The Year for 1-1.4-litre capacity.

Interestingly it’s not called the 309 as some might’ve assumed it would be because the Peugeot 309 already exists, albeit it circa 1985.

That, and in an effort to bring some sort of familiarity to the Peugeot nomenclature, all models will end in ‘8’: 208, 2008, 3008, 508 etc, and now 308.

Back to point though, because Peugeot South Africa will secretly be hoping that the new 308, at the very least, gets the nod onto the South Africa Car of The Year list of finalists for 2014.

That's a stretch isn't it? South African's don't like French cars do they?

Indeed. A few international awards might not be enough to sway your average South African buyer away from the established competition. We are after all not as adventurous as our European counterparts, for whom buying French is akin to buying German, or Japanese even.

Peugeot has realised the general nervous disposition of our local buyers and has commendably thrown everything they can at the new 308 to make it as enticing as possible.

For starters, they've realised the potential faff for customers of having to visit a dealership in order to test drive a new car and will actually bring a car to your home or workplace and let you go for a test drive. Nice!

More crucially though, buy a new Peugeot 308 and you get a full 5 year/100 000km maintenance and service plan, which essentially translates into 100 000km of worry-free motoring. Impressive.

Okay moving on...

Stylistically the 308 is quite a pretty looking thing. It is of course brand new and in terms of design is far more restrained than previous versions, with more than a hint of VW Golf in profile.

This is the GT-Line spec model which means the addition of a few very subtle styling changes over the regular model, such as the Lion emblem now residing in the grille rather than on the bonnet. Full LED headlights with running lights are a nice touch, as well as the dual chromed exhaust surrounds on the rear bumper, which are fake by the way - the actual exhaust is hidden underneath - but no less pretty looking.

Rims are 17-inch in diameter with sporty Dunlop 225/45 low-profile rubber.

With the evergreen VW Golf firmly in the sights of Peugeot, the 308 strikes a wonderful balance between sophisticated, yet with just enough French design flair.

And on the inside?

In terms of perceived quality and interior fit and finish, the new 308 represents a quantum leap forward and while not quite on par with German rivals, it isn't very far off and will be giving the Japanese and Korean competition a bit of a headache.

First thing you notice when getting into the 308 are the very comfortable and cosseting front seats which are unusually sporty in design. They're part leather with contrasting red stitching and feature electric lumbar adjustment as well as a massage function.

Let's talk about the elephant in the room, Peugeot's quirky i-Cockpit design. Essentially Peugeot has tried to fix something which wasn't broken. Viewing the central instrument binnacle through the steering wheel has always been the traditional working format, but then the French are all about challenging traditions.

In the 308 the instrument binnacle is viewed over the steering wheel and they've achieved this by opting for a smaller than usual (and in the 308s case the 208 GTi's wheel) steering wheel and having it sit lower than it normally would.

This takes some getting used to, especially if you're not a fan of having the steering wheel sitting almost in your lap. Saying that, with generous height adjustment of the driver's seat and a reach and height adjustable steering column, I could find the ideal driving position and still view the speedo and tachometer over the steering wheel. Not something I could achieve in the 208 which features the same unusual setup.

As is becoming popular throughout the industry, the 308 features a big 9.7-inch touchscreen which takes care of all your important functions. It's high-res too and is one of the better more intuitive touch only systems that I've used. Helped enormously by the six shortcut 'buttons' situated on either side of it.

Radio/Multimedia and nearly all air-con/ventilation controls are controlled via the touchscreen which means the rest of the dashboard is beautifully uncluttered without the plethora of buttons you might normally find.

How does it drive?

After a few days with the new Pug reservations about the i-Cockpit design faded away because in the end, it works well. I'd still prefer a bigger steering wheel sitting higher up, but that is a personal preference.

With the sporty seats and dinky steering wheel which features a surprisingly quick rack allowing for very little movement, you do feel as if you're piloting something a little more special than what it is, which is a very good thing.

Perhaps the gem in what is overall a very appealing package is this 3-cylinder engine. It's only 1.2-litre in capacity yet manages to produce an impressive 96kW and 240Nm of torque available from a low 1750rpm. It's easy to see why it won the award it did.

Sure, it's heavily turbocharged and is very unresponsive below the 2 000rpm level, but once over that when the turbo's have spooled up enough the power is delivered smoothly and effortlessly as the revs peak. Speaking of, the tachometer spins counter clockwise which is another nice touch.

It's mated to a similarly slick six-speed manual which is a joy to operate and the only drawback I can think of with the 308 is that at the moment you can only get it in with a manual gearbox.

Considering the popularity of these new-fangled dual-clutch gearboxes (around 50% of all golfs is DSG equipped) it might pay Peugeot to rush their version to market fairly soon. It will surely broaden the 308s appeal even further.

Okay, let's wrap this up

Are South Africans ready to make the big shift from their traditional buying mindset and jump into something French, like the 308?

Not yet, I think it'll take a few more years of proven reliability and keen after sales service before that happens. However as a reset, you can be sure the 308 will be slowly expanding their share of the market.

There is the question of resale value which you can be sure with a niche player like Peugeot will still be well below the competition. However, with the 308s standard maintenance and service plan playing to its advantage and Parisian good looks, if you're in the market for a Golf size hatchback, the new 308 fully deserves more of your attention.

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