ONES WE FOUND
2018
Peugeot 5008 Puretech 130 Allure, 10,000 miles, £20,095
sometimes feel like you’re doing a nodding dog impression. The standard 18in wheels are better, and in any case, the 5008 is the more comfortable and settled car at higher speeds – particularly on the motorway.
Compared with some of their rivals, both are pretty agile through corners, but you wouldn’t describe either as fun to drive. The 5008’s steering is quicker to respond when you turn the wheel, but heavier at manoeuvring speeds.
PEUGEOT 5008 2019
Seat Tarraco 1.5 TSI Evo 150 SE Tech, 9000 miles, £19,995
Both setups are precise enough to allow you to place the car exactly where you want it when taking corners at higher speeds.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Driving position, visibility, infotainment, quality
Both of these cars use digital dials that can place loads of useful information close to your line of sight, such as sat-nav directions, for example. You can also scroll through music playlists and radio stations using buttons on, or behind, the steering wheel – a process that’s generally more intuitive in the Tarraco.
The 5008’s 8.0in infotainment touchscreen is mounted where it’s easy to see without taking your eyes too far from the road, but the system can be sluggish to respond. The fact that its screen also controls the air conditioning system is annoying, too. You get plenty of gadgets, though, including Apple Carplay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring.
The Tarraco’s 8.0in touchscreen is much quicker to respond than the 5008’s and has sharper graphics. It’s also simpler and more logical than the Peugeot’s and you still get plenty of gadgets, including smartphone mirroring, and there are enough USB sockets for three phones to be charged at once.
In the 5008, you view the instruments over – rather than through – what is an unusually small steering wheel. This soon starts to feel like second nature, though, and there’s plenty of movement in the seat and steering wheel to suit drivers of all shapes and sizes.
Both cars come with adjustable lumbar support as standard to help ward off lower back pain on longer journeys, but the Tarraco’s seat holds you in place better through tight corners.
The 5008 feels special inside and features some really upmarket materials, although some of the trim panels don’t line up very well. While the Tarraco’s interior is very well built, it’s rather bland next to the 5008’s, and its materials aren’t quite of the same quality.
SPACE AND PRACTICALITY
Front space, rear space, seating exibility, boot
Both cars have seven seats, and the three in the middle row can be folded down individually, while the rearmost two can also be folded into the boot floor if they’re not required.
In the 5008, the middle-row seats are each of equal width and can be slid back and forth individually. The middle-row seats in the Tarraco have a sliding function, too, but only move in a 60/40 split, plus the centre seat is narrower than the outer two and isn’t especially comfortable to sit in.
What’s more, only the Tarraco’s outer middlerow seats have Isofix mounting points, whereas all three in the 5008 can take a child seat. However, the Tarraco does have a third Isofix mounting point on its front passenger seat.
Slide the middle-row seats all the way back in both cars and you’ll find there’s significantly more knee room in the 5008. There’s more head room, too, although still just about enough in the Tarraco that a six-footer won’t need to duck. Be wary of optional panoramic sunroofs, though; the Tarraco’s robs it of a little head room, while the 5008’s really cuts into space for taller passengers.
Neither car’s rearmost row is very easy to access, but the 5008 provides lots more leg and head room back there; the rearmost seats in the Tarraco are strictly for emergencies. In sevenseat mode the 5008 wins for boot space, too; its flat floor is more usable than the awkwardly humped space in the Tarraco. Meanwhile, in five-seat mode and with the second row slid all the way back, the 5008’s boot is taller, longer and, in the main, wider. We managed to fit 10
carry-on suitcases below the tonneau cover, compared with just eight in the Tarraco
BUYING AND OWNING
Costs, equipment, reliability, safety and security
Although it was slightly more expensive when new, the Tarraco is around £2000 cheaper than the 5008 at a couple of years old. Bear in mind, though, that it will continue to lose value at
ECONOMY & EMISSIONS
a faster rate, so it will be worth considerably less when you come to sell it in a few years’ time. The Tarraco will also cost more to run, averaging 34.5mpg in our tests against the 5008’s 40.8mpg.
The 5008 finished mid-table in the large SUV class in the most recent What Car? Reliability Survey, while the Tarraco didn’t feature. Seat as a brand ranked 15th out of 31 manufacturers, while Peugeot was 18th.
The Tarraco has the edge in standard kit; it trumps the 5008 with LED headlights, metallic paint and three-zone climate control.
Automatic emergency city braking, lane-keeping assistance, a driver tiredness monitoring system and an emergency SOS button are standard on both, with the 5008 adding blind spot monitoring. Both cars carry a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating, the Tarraco scoring particularly highly for adult protection.