The free radicals
Serious temptation from Peugeot and Lexus
It’s hard to imagine Dragons’ Den backing a new posh saloon car pitched at the Germans. The sector’s static, SUVs are booming, everyone wants a BMW, Merc or Audi… The hapless execs would find themselves in a bloodbath cruelly prolonged for viewer amusement, their humiliation halted after the sweaty mental arithmetic becomes too embarrassing to watch.
Thankfully for us, some companies are still brave enough to offer non-SUV alternatives to the predictable 3-series, and because they know competition is fierce they make sure there are some damn good reasons to buy. Two of the latest to stick their headlights above the parapet hail from Lexus and Peugeot.
The Lexus ES has never been sold here before, but it’s now into its seventh generation. Based on the front-wheel-drive GA-K architecture, this one effectively replaces the rear-wheel-drive GS in the UK.
This is a substantially larger vehicle than the 3-series, and at 4975mm long it’s actually longer than a 5-series. No other car in this test provides so much space behind the driver, and popping the bootlid isn’t so much like opening a luggage compartment as accidentally opening a cargo bay in the International Space Station. I swear the boot’s larger than the car. Although it’s a much bigger car, on price and philosophy the ES absolutely merits inclusion: our F Sport sits at the centre of the three-tier range, is pitched as most dynamic of all, and lands bang in 320d M Sport territory at £38,150. Game on.
Long, low and pointy, fitted as standard with 19-inch alloys, the ES looks like an arrow about to be shot from an archer’s bow. It’s attractive and dramatic. Nice interior too. The 10-way sports seats are excellent, although they could go a little lower, and there are lovely materials – soft leather, shadow-chrome finishes, aluminium trim inserts inspired by shogun warriors’ katana swords.
Our car also gets the £4k Takumi pack, with 12.3-inch infotainment screen and a second-generation touchpad by the gearlever that highlights functions on the screen in response to finger movements. It’s okay to use while stationary, but still requires too much attention on the move.
Purely petrol models are sold elsewhere, but only the ES300h Hybrid reaches the UK. This has a 2.5-litre naturally-aspirated engine making ⊲
176bhp/163lb ft, plus an e-motor with 118bhp/149lb ft, nickel-metal hydride battery and a CVT gearbox. The ES weighs at least 140kg more than the BMW, but promises a comparable 50-ish mpg.
The ES is a mixed drive. There’s vigorous acceleration out of junctions, it’s relaxing to slip around town silently when EV mode kicks in, and it makes a decent job of cornering at modest speeds. But this is not a car that indulges quicker progress, with howls of protest when accelerating to motorway speeds, a fuzzy relationship between paddleshift inputs and simulated gears, steering that feels artificial and lacks convincing feedback, and a front end that goes full Amphicar when driven more aggressively.
You’d perhaps forgive this if there were exceptional refinement at a gentler pace, but it’s nothing special. This might be because, along with larger wheels, F Sports get Adaptive Variable Suspension, not the Dynamic Control Shocks of its siblings. The default ride quality is a busy jiggle like mild airplane turbulence, but you can also select Sport S+ that simulates a space-shuttle breaking up on re-entry; I cannot imagine any scenario in which an ES driver will find this useful. There’s also a good deal of road noise, particularly on coarser surfaces.
Perhaps top-spec, more laid-back Takumi trim better suits the ES, but in F Sport it’s neither dynamic nor refined enough to stay in contention here.
The Peugeot 508 makes a more convincing alternative. Despite fielding top-spec GT trim, Peugeot has provided the cheapest car in this test at £36,439 as a 178bhp 2.0-litre turbodiesel. Even with £2.5k of options it’s still more affordable than a naked BMW, and chances are you’d only want the £575 metallic paint anyway.
Visually it gets off on the right foot with a design that recalls Peugeot’s greatest hits with an avant-garde, modernist twist – frameless door glass, coupe-like body, fantastic fangs slashing down from the headlights. It’s also a practical shape, with enough room for four 6ft-tall adults, and a hatchback rear that opens to reveal 487 litres of space and a best-on-test gong – yes, somehow more capacious than the Lexus.
The interior has a similar confidence to the exterior, with a look that brings to mind modernist architecture and makes its driver feel exceptionally intelligent – piano keys to select infotainment functions, carbonfibre-style trim that looks especially rich and textured as it catches the light, a centre console that rakes up like a flight deck.
The seatbacks are perhaps a little firm, and there’s some craziness with the extremely small steering wheel that obscures the iCockpit dash if adjusted for tall drivers and – sorry to be a stuck record – infotainment that can’t match the BMW. But you sense a design team pulling together here, confident in the esoteric look they’ve dreamt up, and executing it with a flourish, not a whimper. I like it.
On 19-inch Pilot Sport 4s with adaptive dampers, the 508 turns in a highly satisfying drive. Perhaps it could smooth little secondary bumps better, but the overwhelming sensation is of good body control combined with lush suspension travel that compresses deeply and then just a little more, like sinking into a particularly comfortable bed. The turbodiesel gives easy, muscular performance from low revs, noise suppression is excellent, and gears shift with both speed and finesse.
Set the standard massage function to Cat Paw and you’ll feel soothed after driving across entire countries – I know, I drove from the Med to the Midlands in one.
The 508 GT’s easygoing nature belies a capable chassis when you crack on. Select Manual and you get stiffer – but not too stiff – dampers, and manual control of the gears. It grips hard, steers sweetly, stops well, shifts promptly and provides a generous bandwidth of performance no matter the relatively modest performance. There’s a fluency and effortlessness here that makes the 508 simultaneously relaxing, entertaining and really quite quick point-to-point in a manner that almost creeps up on you.
It is not the most dynamic car in this test, but the 508 strikes an extremely good compromise between the comfort and performance you’re most likely to appreciate in typical driving, and the ability to engage its driver over a challenging road. It’s a genuine contender for your 3-series money. ⊲
There’s a fluency and e ortlessness to the 508 that makes it quick point-to-point