Stretching out

EUGEOT may be stretching a point when it calls the latest 5008 an allnew car but they’re not far off the mark.

For starters it actually is stretched - and that makes it a very different proposition.

With loads of room in the second row of seats, enough space in the third for a couple of growing teenagers and the possibility of the most enormous boot, the 5008 is looking to muscle into the territory occupied by the likes of the Land Rover Discovery Sport.

Add in the Nissan X-Trail and new Skoda Kodiaq and Peugeot has decidedly upmarket hopes for the 5008, due with its first UK owners in time for the September change to ‘67’ plates.

Now, those who keep up with their new cars may recognise a lot of another Peugeot in the newcomer. They’d be right; from front bumper to the start of the rear doors it is pretty much the same as the only recently introduced Peugeot 3008.

But that SUV is a mere five seater and Peugeot knows the world wants more seats in some of its cars. So in comes a replacement for the old seven-seat 5008, but with a different feel. It’s longer than that car and adds 19cms to the 3008, most of it between front and rear wheels.

Today’s marketplace demands a car that’s less people carrier (fuddy duddy, older owners) and more SUV (sporty, athletic, younger) with the sort of swordsharp styling that gives this actually roomy car an arrow-like look from certain quarters.

Roomy it is, with three individual seats in row two that slide to let you favour leg room or boot space, or give the people in the third row a bit more of a comfortable time.

So it looks good inside and out and offers room to spare. How does it drive? Does it feel like the shorter 3008? Yes it does, and no wonder with the same engines on offer.

No precise news yet of what these extra pair of seats is likely to cost over the shorter, less accommodating 3008 but reckon on somewhere around a grand each, so adding £2,000 to the bottom line. Or two-bottomed line, of course.

So, prices might start around £23,000 and top out at near £35,000 for a powerful diesel with automatic transmission and every modern bell and whistle.