Peugeot’s 2008 aims high
French maker hopes you will look up to its tiny wagon as an apres-off-roader, David Linklater reports.
previous experience with this engine in the 208 hatch, I’d put that down to sheer newness: our 2008 only had 250km on the clock when we picked it up and adding another 700km only just got things rolling.
The six-speed automatic is calibrated for economy in normal mode: there’s a good spread of ratios but it hangs onto gears with great determination, which is why it’s a good idea to click the Sport button when you encounter a winding road or want to overtake without relying on full throttle. It locks out top gear and makes the shift protocol a lot more lively; shame the S-button is so tiny and hidden behind the gearlever, out of driver sight.
The chassis is as composed and fluid as it ever was. Cornering can feel a little nervous at first, but that’s because Peugeot’s i-cockpit cabin layout puts the instruments up high and a tiny steering wheel (so very, very tiny) right down in your lap.
You have to learn to be delicate with such a small tiller; once you have, you can fling the 2008 around and have a lot of fun. There’s a lot of body roll but also a lot of grip, and changes in attitude are well-telegraphed.
The 2008 has gained some camera-based active safety in the form of autonomous braking at city speeds, although there’s no sign of related tech such as lanedeparture warning or adaptive cruise control. But perhaps that’s too much to ask on a $37k small car.
The interior architecture is virtually identical to the 208, but the 2008 has plenty of intricate detailing that you could argue is a bit contrived. Or really cute. Up to you.
There are red outlines everywhere, including the instrument panel (very GTI, that) and seat stitching.
The handbrake is an aircraftstyle lever. For $200 you can have roof lining with slivers of LED lighting throughout that are supposed to remind you of tyre tracks. That SUV thing again.
Perhaps the greatest advance in the latest 2008’s cabin is the addition of phone projection technology. Peugeot embraced the idea of eliminating switchgear and moving as much as possible to the touch-screen very early on in its small cars (it was one of the first brands to do away with a CD player, for example), but its infotainment operating system and sat-nav interface is pretty clumsy.
Having Apple Carplay (sorry, no Android Auto yet) fixes that instantly. Suddenly, the 2008 has a great music interface and excellent sat-nav, at no extra cost to the buyer. If you’re not an Apple person, there’s still integrated sat-nav and all the usual Bluetooth connectivity.
Peugeot has avoided its 308-mistake, where it buried the air-conditioning controls inside the touch-screen menu. The 2008 retains physical buttons for those functions.
Rivals for the 2008 include the Renault Captur (if you’re a French-car fanatic), Mazda CX-3 and Holden Trax. It won’t be for everybody, but the Peugeot has a premium feel compared with the Renault and while it might seem a bit niche against the Mazda or Holden, the tiny three-pot powerplant certainly pulls its weight against the larger-capacity fours of those models.