Poor suspension spoils Peugeot’s plush Euro poll winner
IF you caught any of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, you’ll know it’s not always the best song that wins. Politics. That’s what’s at work. With everything kicking off in the EU at the moment – this year’s “contest” seemed to be more skewed than ever.
What’s this got to do with Peugeot’s 3008 SUV?
Well, it’s European Car of the Year, that’s what. And the judging panel? It’s made up of 58 independent European journalists. I’ll just park that there. I will say, though, that while I wouldn’t nominate the 3008 for Car of the Year, it is a very good Peugeot indeed.
The exterior is strikingly styled but the interior goes that little bit further.
From the pleasingly tactile materials used, to the Audi-esque digital dash with its virtual analogue dials and needles, the whole cabin oozes the sort of quality you wouldn’t normally associate with the brand.
To say they’ve upped their game would be an insulting understatement.
On the whole, it’s roomy and spacious too but then you discover that the low-sloping roof rubs its headlining on the bonces of any six-footers in the back and the massive gearbox tunnel between the front seat passengers creates a feeling of restriction rather than the Top Gun cockpit feeling the designers were probably chasing.
The small, low steering wheel divides opinions pretty neatly, like a pot of vegetable yeast extract does at breakfast time.
For the record, I’m not a fan of Marmite.
In such a big car with sensitive, overly-assisted power steering, it does feel unnatural to have such a small control wheel at knee height. Still, at least it offers the driver an unhindered view of those crisp LED clocks.
I drove the 2.0 diesel with the torque converter auto-box in GT spec. Aurally you always know it’s a diesel but performance and economy are impressive.
The gearbox I’m not so sure about. Ratios swap slickly and quickly but pulling away from rest the torque converter is quite abrupt in the way it delivers drive, requiring a very gentle foot. There’s a tendency to hunt about the gears, a sensation made more pronounced by pressing the sport button.
But it’s the ride quality of the 3008 that really had me scratching my head about the 58 independent 1965 Austin 1800 1968 NSU RO80 1976 Simca 1307-1308 1977 Rover SD1 1982 Renault 9 1986 Ford Scorpio 1989 Fiat Tipo 1990 Citroen XM 2001 Alfa Romeo 147 2012 Vauxhall Ampera journalists from 22 European countries on the Car of the Year judging panel.
Maybe they didn’t drive the car on the 19in 50-profile Continental tyres that I did? Maybe they drove it on heavily EU-subsidised, perfect Portuguese Tarmac?
Over speed humps or washboardtype surfaces it feels massively oversprung and underdamped. Big enough bumps actually top the struts out. You can hear it. THUNK.
More rebound damping and lighterrated springs please, Vicar.
The 3008 I drove fidgeted and juddered its way over poor surfaces like its chassis engineers had never encountered such things.
I’m guessing this is the price you pay for choosing big rims and low-pro tyres?
So, the 3008 looks great inside and out, has technical spec/build quality never seen before in a Peugeot showroom and has space a-plenty for the average family.
If you fancy test driving one, try a 1.6 diesel in sub-£30k GT-Line trim with a manual gearbox and the smallest wheels and highest profile tyres on offer.