THE LION KING

Spacious, high-tech and efficient, new 3008 will be roaring success

It’s a well-deserved accolade and, having already driven the 3008 for a short time, I was delighted to have it for a week to really see how it performed every day.

The version I was driving was the GT Line, which means you get all the sporty looks without the big engine – keeping the fuel and tax costs down.

That means lovely big bumpers and 18in diamond-cut alloys, a two-tone roof and body with the roof colour on the door mirror shells, twin exhausts at the rear and LED Peugeot Lion approach lights.

Of course, all Peugeots now come with the distinctive lion’s claw lights at the rear and this model has lovely scrolling indicators at the front.

Peugeot sold 75,000 models of the previous version of this car in the UK and it is hard to see how they will not do even better this time.

Inside, there are comfortable fabric seats with a massage function for the front. But what is going to immediately attract attention is the beautifully designed instrument panel – which can be personalised – coupled with an 8in touchscreen on the centre console.

Underneath this is a set of switches which serve almost as shortcuts to var ious d if ferent screens, entertainment, sat nav and settings.

There is even one which offers two kinds of ambience in the cabin – Boost for an energised driving experience and Relax for a laid back one.

There is Bluetooth, DAB, Mirrorplay, the faci l ity to change miles to kilometres for European driving and a really good sat nav set-up. There is plenty of space and the boot has 591 litres of capacity with the seats up and 1670 litres with the seats down.

Under the bonnet of this car is a choice of Peugeot’s really good petrol and diesel engines. This version had the 1.6 Blue HDi diesel with 120PS. That gives you plenty of push and loads of efficiency with only 104g/km of CO2.

The drive is excellent with the power to get down the road quickly and efficiently in a smooth and elegant way. It comes with all the systems you need for city driving, such as parking cameras, hill start assist and features like lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring and speed sign detection for the motorways. The 3008 has a Euro NCAP five-star rating. My version also came with the optional opening glass roof and electric tailgate.

This car is really coming of age at last.