The bigger and better second-generation Peugeot 308 doles out an easy-going stride, but its handling lacks bite
Peugeot 308. Same name, but a brand new car on a brand new platform. The mission here isn't just to take the fight to the Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus, but ultimately to tread on the toes of the Audi A3 and Mercedes-Benz A-class (the segment leader in its native Germany).This new 308 is a plank in Peugeot's intention to become a credible premium brand, a concept nowadays rooted far more in buyer perception than in genuine quality differences between cars. So the decision to keep, for the first time in the company's passenger-car history, the same name for the new car as its predecessor, seems an odd one.However, it had to happen. The next number would be 309, but Peugeot had one of those back in the 80s, and it set the time-bomb ticking way back then. And after 309, there would be no more numbers with a zero in the middle anyway. Beyond such pragmatic factors, Peugeot points out that rival carmakers often use existing names for successor cars, which helps customers identify with them, and that eight is a lucky number in the vitally important Chinese market.A number more significant to British buyers will be the sub-£15,000 starting price.So this second-generation 308 is slightly wider, slightly shorter and slightly lower, has a longer wheelbase and, vitally, weighs around 140kg less than the old one. It has an aluminium bonnet and front wings, aluminium suspension components and a welded-in composite boot floor. The tailgate, too, is a plastic composite. PSA's EMP2 (Efficient Modular Platform 2) understructure first featured in the second incarnation of the Citroën C4 Picasso, but here its modules make it shorter and the dynamic characteristics are designed to match the rejuvenated notion of a Peugeot that's fun to drive.This and 'French elegance' are to be the new brand credos.That elegance takes a while to settle on the eyes, but it's a much tidier look than the visual canine lunch that was the old 308. The nose is less busy than that of the overwrought 208, the flanks feature a vertical rear edge to the side windows in three-door 205 fashion, and the tail is low and squat with a racily shallow rear window and angle-striped tail lights. High-end versions have LED headlights.Inside, like the 208 and 2008 before it, the 308 has a small, low-set steering wheel with instruments visible above it. Except that this time, you're more likely to be able to see the bottom of the instruments while sitting in a normal driving position. The tachometer needle rotates anti-clockwise like an Aston Martin's, all the needles are striking creations in chrome and red, and a squashed-hexagonal, aluminium-edged central panel dominates the rest of the minimal-switch dashboard.The hefty 9.7-inch touchscreen controls most minor functions, including air-con and the various connectivity features, and does so quite effectively once you've accepted that everything is menu-driven via seven touchpads. The base model (Access in UK, with Active the middle version) loses the screen and has a normal stereo and heater controls in place of the touchscreen. Not everyone will approve of the electric parking brake, but being automatic – it disengages without requiring a push – is a big plus in its favour. So, is this a convincingly upmarket cabin? Mostly, yes. The uprange Allure models have leather and Alcantara seats, or optional full leather, with subtle stitching, premium-looking longitudinal fluting and a particularly comfortable shape. The optional electric adjustment includes a variable massage function. The dashboard and door cappings are nicely grained slush mouldings, but some of the lower panels are hard and the grain is a mismatch.Bright metal accents abound and the small steering wheel feels good to grasp. The bluish tinge of the cloth headlining and screen pillars is a bit uninviting, though. As is the back, where Peugeot hasn’t really done enough to make room for larger adults – a base the elongated five-door Golf has exceptionally well covered. Gearboxes are five or six-speed manuals with a six-speed automatic coming later. It's a torque converter unit from Japan's Aisin, but the shift speed, quality and efficiency are boldly promised to mimic that of the best dual-clutchers. Petrol engines range from an 81bhp, 1.2-litre three-cylinder to the usual 1.6-litre turbo with 153bhp, with interesting 108 and 128bhp 1.2-litre turbo triples arriving next spring. Diesels include 1.6s of 91, 113 and 118bhp, the last a 'BlueHDi' with just 82g/km CO2. That same tag applies to the 148bhp 2.0 HDi.We've tried five new 308s. Slowest is the 91bhp diesel; willing enough if you’re not in a particular hurry, and don’t mind the considerable turbo lag when pulling out of tight bends. As it's cheaper, it may actually be preferable to the 115bhp version above it, which isn’t much of an improvement despite receiving the slicker six rather than five-speed gearbox. Next up, the lower-powered petrol 1.6 with 123bhp and, unlike in the old 118bhp 308, a gently-boosting turbo.This greatly improves low-end torque, but the 153bhp version is a lot punchier while retaining the same degree of quietness – only diluted by a breath of wind noise on the motorway. Even punchier at low revs, but rather gruffer and unable to match the petrol car's 8.0sec 0-62mph time, is the 2.0 HDi, whose effortless thrust is very appealing.The suspension is a conventional strut/torsion beam arrangement, albeit with the rear trailing arms' pivot point raised to allow the wheels to move back when they hit a ridge (it greatly softens the impact). The result proves comfortable, delivering the kind of long-legged, easy-going stride that makes French roads seem even smoother than they actually are. It’s amenable around town, too, where the dinky steering wheel makes short work of urban driving. Where the 308 struggles is in the quick commute slipstream of three-quarter pace.That there is too little feedback at your fingertips is now a common problem, but where it’s competitors have found the right kind of hefty resistance with which to replace it, the Peugeot lumbers into corners with very little build-up of weight or credible bite. This is combined with an initial dose of lean from the body before it eventually finds the kind of poise you can count on. By that time, a quickly driven Focus or Golf would have waltzed away. That will not be a concern to every Peugeot buyer, of course, but at the moment the margin by which the 308 can be found wanting is clear. Elsewhere, the gap has been reduced neatly by the advnaces made in build quality, comfort, refinement and all-round appearance. A UK group test will reveal the objective truth, but there's certainly enough promise in the new model to make it appreciably superior to the one before.
The bigger and better second-generation Peugeot 308 doles out an easy-going stride, but its handling lacks bite
Peugeot 308. Same name, but a brand new car on a brand new platform. The mission here isn't just to take the fight to the Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus, but ultimately to tread on the toes of the Audi A3 and Mercedes-Benz A-class (the segment leader in its native Germany).This new 308 is a plank in Peugeot's intention to become a credible premium brand, a concept nowadays rooted far more in buyer perception than in genuine quality differences between cars. So the decision to keep, for the first time in the company's passenger-car history, the same name for the new car as its predecessor, seems an odd one.However, it had to happen. The next number would be 309, but Peugeot had one of those back in the 80s, and it set the time-bomb ticking way back then. And after 309, there would be no more numbers with a zero in the middle anyway. Beyond such pragmatic factors, Peugeot points out that rival carmakers often use existing names for successor cars, which helps customers identify with them, and that eight is a lucky number in the vitally important Chinese market.A number more significant to British buyers will be the sub-£15,000 starting price.So this second-generation 308 is slightly wider, slightly shorter and slightly lower, has a longer wheelbase and, vitally, weighs around 140kg less than the old one. It has an aluminium bonnet and front wings, aluminium suspension components and a welded-in composite boot floor. The tailgate, too, is a plastic composite. PSA's EMP2 (Efficient Modular Platform 2) understructure first featured in the second incarnation of the Citroën C4 Picasso, but here its modules make it shorter and the dynamic characteristics are designed to match the rejuvenated notion of a Peugeot that's fun to drive.This and 'French elegance' are to be the new brand credos.That elegance takes a while to settle on the eyes, but it's a much tidier look than the visual canine lunch that was the old 308. The nose is less busy than that of the overwrought 208, the flanks feature a vertical rear edge to the side windows in three-door 205 fashion, and the tail is low and squat with a racily shallow rear window and angle-striped tail lights. High-end versions have LED headlights.Inside, like the 208 and 2008 before it, the 308 has a small, low-set steering wheel with instruments visible above it. Except that this time, you're more likely to be able to see the bottom of the instruments while sitting in a normal driving position. The tachometer needle rotates anti-clockwise like an Aston Martin's, all the needles are striking creations in chrome and red, and a squashed-hexagonal, aluminium-edged central panel dominates the rest of the minimal-switch dashboard.The hefty 9.7-inch touchscreen controls most minor functions, including air-con and the various connectivity features, and does so quite effectively once you've accepted that everything is menu-driven via seven touchpads. The base model (Access in UK, with Active the middle version) loses the screen and has a normal stereo and heater controls in place of the touchscreen. Not everyone will approve of the electric parking brake, but being automatic – it disengages without requiring a push – is a big plus in its favour. So, is this a convincingly upmarket cabin? Mostly, yes. The uprange Allure models have leather and Alcantara seats, or optional full leather, with subtle stitching, premium-looking longitudinal fluting and a particularly comfortable shape. The optional electric adjustment includes a variable massage function. The dashboard and door cappings are nicely grained slush mouldings, but some of the lower panels are hard and the grain is a mismatch.Bright metal accents abound and the small steering wheel feels good to grasp. The bluish tinge of the cloth headlining and screen pillars is a bit uninviting, though. As is the back, where Peugeot hasn’t really done enough to make room for larger adults – a base the elongated five-door Golf has exceptionally well covered. Gearboxes are five or six-speed manuals with a six-speed automatic coming later. It's a torque converter unit from Japan's Aisin, but the shift speed, quality and efficiency are boldly promised to mimic that of the best dual-clutchers. Petrol engines range from an 81bhp, 1.2-litre three-cylinder to the usual 1.6-litre turbo with 153bhp, with interesting 108 and 128bhp 1.2-litre turbo triples arriving next spring. Diesels include 1.6s of 91, 113 and 118bhp, the last a 'BlueHDi' with just 82g/km CO2. That same tag applies to the 148bhp 2.0 HDi.We've tried five new 308s. Slowest is the 91bhp diesel; willing enough if you’re not in a particular hurry, and don’t mind the considerable turbo lag when pulling out of tight bends. As it's cheaper, it may actually be preferable to the 115bhp version above it, which isn’t much of an improvement despite receiving the slicker six rather than five-speed gearbox. Next up, the lower-powered petrol 1.6 with 123bhp and, unlike in the old 118bhp 308, a gently-boosting turbo.This greatly improves low-end torque, but the 153bhp version is a lot punchier while retaining the same degree of quietness – only diluted by a breath of wind noise on the motorway. Even punchier at low revs, but rather gruffer and unable to match the petrol car's 8.0sec 0-62mph time, is the 2.0 HDi, whose effortless thrust is very appealing.The suspension is a conventional strut/torsion beam arrangement, albeit with the rear trailing arms' pivot point raised to allow the wheels to move back when they hit a ridge (it greatly softens the impact). The result proves comfortable, delivering the kind of long-legged, easy-going stride that makes French roads seem even smoother than they actually are. It’s amenable around town, too, where the dinky steering wheel makes short work of urban driving. Where the 308 struggles is in the quick commute slipstream of three-quarter pace.That there is too little feedback at your fingertips is now a common problem, but where it’s competitors have found the right kind of hefty resistance with which to replace it, the Peugeot lumbers into corners with very little build-up of weight or credible bite. This is combined with an initial dose of lean from the body before it eventually finds the kind of poise you can count on. By that time, a quickly driven Focus or Golf would have waltzed away. That will not be a concern to every Peugeot buyer, of course, but at the moment the margin by which the 308 can be found wanting is clear. Elsewhere, the gap has been reduced neatly by the advnaces made in build quality, comfort, refinement and all-round appearance. A UK group test will reveal the objective truth, but there's certainly enough promise in the new model to make it appreciably superior to the one before.