SIGA 07: Peugeot 308

He is in charge of 40% of the sales of Peugeot, of making waves in the best-selling and most contested segment, and he is also a benchmark to follow.

The Peugeot 308 is a newly launched model, still fresh on the market, but you cannot take your eyes off it, because the French know how to make a car a success, and this one has everything it takes for that.

At first glance it can easily be mistaken for a 307 (the fault lies largely with that restyling of the 307, which makes it too similar), but it soon becomes clear that these very pronounced design features are different. At the front, all the lines are much more stretched and sharpened at the corners; the grille grows in size and takes on a curvature that makes it resemble that of the latest Maserati. The fog lights also receive a change in shape and appear to be arranged more aerodynamically.

A silhouette of an enlarged 207, with its mirrors on the doors, ends in a very sloping rear, not as much as a Mégane, but enough to be considered radically groundbreaking among Peugeot designs. Its tail lights are also affected by this new rear and adopt a new shape that extends further along the sides, though not as far as another I know. A small spoiler with a pair of small chrome grilles on each side also serves to accentuate the sporty design and hide the exhaust pipe.

If we go inside, we realise that the space is immense, far greater than that of the 307 and among the best in its category; a wide, distant windscreen lets in a fairly large amount of light, and the dark plastics show, in some places, an appearance similar to exposed carbon fibre. The reclined, curved console that ends at the central tunnel houses the main controls for the audio system and air conditioning. Two details missing from this model are a start&stop button and an electric handbrake, features that would not only give it more modernity but also put it on a par with many models in its category.

The front windows are also quite large, which helps improve the car’s interior visibility, which is among the best; the seats, for their part, offer strong lateral support, and the headrests can be adjusted for comfortable distance from the head. As a curiosity, the handbrake (a manual, non-electric one, as I said before) has an unusual shape: it is “L“-shaped and not straight as in most cases.

One detail that does not change at all is the typical steering wheel of Peugeot, also used by Citroën on some models such as the C5. I find it terribly ugly with that bulging part in the centre, and even though this is a basic version, it would not have cost them much to integrate the radio controls or the speed limiter/cruise control (by the way, this element does not exist on the 308: failed); although at least it did have the on-board computer next to the rev counter.

If we want to carry people in the rear seats, they will travel with sufficient comfort and space for the legs as well as headroom; but of course, as always, in the middle seat, if you are not a gnome or a child, you are going to have a hard time. Yet if, up to this point, you are beginning to imagine that the 308 will be as “MPV-like” as the 307, you are mistaken, because in this new model they have tried to make it resemble other compacts more, for example by reducing the car’s height and thereby improving its handling (so they say…).

The exterior photos of the car show the top-of-the-range, the “premium“, whereas the interior photos belong to the most basic trim, the “urban“. The 308 already has a wide variety of engines: 3 petrol and 3 diesel, but you may prefer to wait, because in 2008 there will be a BioFlex that will allow its use with E85, and in 2010 the long-awaited hybrid version will arrive.

For now, you should know that from 14,600 euros you can get one, although it is considerably more expensive than rivals such as the Citroën C4, Fiat Bravo and Toyota Auris.

Photos | Eduardo M.
More information about the model | Peugeot
Event page | SIGA 07