Road Test: Peugeot 208 1.4 HDI Active

Price as tested: €18,795

+ Looks, sense of quality, comfort, refinement, classiness
– Steering a touch mushy
= As chic and pleasant as a French hatch should be


As with all offspring, the new Peugeot 208 has some substantial shoes to fill, but oddly enough, those shoes belong to its grandfather, not its father, so to speak. From 1998, the Peugeot 206 was a roaring success for the rampant Lion, with more than 30,000 sold in Ireland alone in its lifetime, and millions more across Europe and the world. But its successor, the heavy, rather turgid 207 lagged behind. Way behind, shifting just 9,000-odd units in Ireland. Why? Well, odd styling didn’t help but the 207 also missed out on the crucial 1.0-1.2-litre ‘second car’ market (its smallest engine was a 1.4 and that was hardly a ball of fire), a segment that the 206 more or less made its own.

Now though, despite Peugeot itself being beset with falling European sales, financial woes and seeking changes in French law to help it climb out of its current crisis, the French are hitting back hard with the new 208, a car that seeks to reclaim the chic, small, sexy ground that was once the 206’s natural home.

Looks nice, doesn’t it? A touch snub-nosed, perhaps, but neat and neatly detailed. A little colour sensitive (please, please avoid the awful pink champagne metallic) but classy and stylish in a dark hue, or even white. The three door model even has a stylistic nod to the long beloved eighties Peugeot 205, with a small oval badge set into the c-pillar.

Inside, things look very, very different to what went before. In the 207, you got comfy seats but a massive fascia that seemed to eat unnecessarily into cabin space and cheap main dials that looked distinctly aftermarket. Almost nothing from the 207 then (or any other Peugeot model for the that matter) is carried over into the 208. All the switchgear is new, the centre-console mounted touch-screen looks nice (and is standard on all but the most basic model) and then there’s the steering wheel. Now, we’ve criticised Peugeots in the past for having massive, bulky steering wheels unbecoming of cars with a sporting mien. The RCZ coupe, without the optional Sport pack, was a particular offender. But the 208’s wheel is tiny, looking more like the wheel you get with a PlayStation driving game than one attached to an actual car. The main instruments (which are very handsome indeed and have more than a whiff of Audi about them) are actually mounted above the rim of the wheel.

Now, that sounds like a recipe for feeling that you’re sitting with the steering wheel resting on your knees, but actually, thanks to a broad range of adjustment for both wheel and seat, it only takes a moment to adjust to the new layout and once done, it feels entirely natural. The wheel itself feels really pleasant to hold; small and sporty rather than tiny and flimsy.

Sadly, it’s not attached to Peuegot’s best ever steering rack; the electrically assisted system is quick and accurate, but lacking almost entirely in road feel. It’s not bad, just not much fun. Which is a shame, because the rest of the chassis is very game indeed, resisting understeer well, cornering sharply,  and best of all; riding with a comfy, controlled compliance that leaves your backside and spine in glorious isolation. Bravo Peugeot, for resisting the temptation to bolt stiff springs and dampers for a faux-sporty feel. As ever, what is done for ride, when done well, is also good for handling.

For the rest, the cabin is spacious and comfy, the boot large and square and the overall levels of fit, finish and quality seem excellent. A shame that Peugeot hasn’t seen fit to extend its standard three year warranty to compete with the Koreans, but I guess you can’t have everything.

The engine in our test car was Peugeot’s familiar 1.4 HDI diesel with 68bhp and it’s a fine, if unremarkable, engine. It’s decently quiet for a diesel in small car, and Peugeot bucks the industry trend for such vehicles, expecting to sell almost half of all its 208s in Ireland with oil burners, rather than the more usual petrol-heavy ratio of competitors. It certainly gives the 208 some hefty mid-range punch (160Nm of torque in a car weighing just 1,050kg – some 110kg lighter than the old 207) will do that, and if you can match the claimed 3.8-litres per 100km fuel economy claim, you should be able to stretch to well over 1,000km between refills.

That said, it’s likely that the lighter, more high-tech 1.0 and 1.2-litre petrol engines will be the stars of the range though, with their light weights helping to give the 208 a more agile, rev-happy feel, but we’ll have to wait a few more months to get a taste of the petrol burners here.

Price-wise, the 208 undercuts most of its major opposition with a starting price of €14,495 for the 1.0 petrol 3-door, and out five-door diesel test car weighed in at €18,795 including cruise control and speed limiter (standard on all models), the touchscreen controller with Bluetooth phone integration and media player, 15” alloys and air conditioning. Decent value for money, that.

Peugeot’s problem will be that, while the 207 was underperforming, the 208’s rivals were doubling from just 16 similar others in 2001 to 27 now, with hefty competition not just from ‘traditional’ models like the Ford Fiesta, VW Polo and Toyota Yaris, but also hard-charging new comers like the Kia Rio and Chevrolet Aveo.

That the 208 is good enough to take them all on, on equal terms is without question. It’s a match for the Polo in quality terms, the Yaris in comfort and the Fiesta (almost) dynamically and much more stylish than the Koreans. Will it be enough to put the 208 back on the 206’s podium step? We’ll see...



Peugeot 208 1.4 HDI Active
Price as tested: €19,795
Price range: €14,495 to TBA
Capacity: 1,368cc
Power: 68bhp
Torque: 160Nm
Top speed: 160kmh
0-100kmh: 15.6sec
Economy: 3.8l-100km (74mpg)
CO2 emissions: 98g/km
Road Tax Band: A €160
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 88% adult, 78% child, 61% pedestrian, 83% safety assist

Road Test: Citroen C5 2.0 HDI Auto

Price as tested: TBA

+ Groovy looks, lovely cabin, different, unique
– Tight rear space, ride too firm
= Attractively different, differently attractive


Shall we not mention the Renault Vel Satis?

The last time a 'mainstream' French car maker tried to convince us to buy a premium saloon that wasn't a saloon, it was Renault's tall, oddball hatch. And charming though it was, it failed utterly in the face of ultra-conservative saloon buyers. It wasn't a conventional three-box and it didn't have a German badge. So no thanks, said the Irish car buying public.

And now here comes Citroen, fresh from it's reinvention of the DS nameplate, expanding a classic singular into a modern three-pronged family of verging-on-premium models.

This then is the third prong of the rebirth of DS, the DS5, a car which will seek to pull in company user-choosers and upper-end family car buyers by being different, attractive and just a little bit luxurious.  

And... It's not quite what we were expecting. With the C4-based DS4 occupying the space around the Qashqai-Golf-A3 kind of area, we expected the DS5 to be bigger by far. But it's not. In fact, it's based on the same basic chassis as the DS4 so although it's a little wider and longer, there's not the clear blue water between them that you'd expect.

That's good in one significant way though, and that's price. Official prices won't be revealed until closer to the February on-sale date but you can expect it to be about €2,500 more than an equivalent C5 saloon, which makes it a lot of luxury for the money.

On the outside it looks exceptionally distinctive. Perhaps not hopelessly gorgeous, but handsome, different and very eye-catching, especially with that chrome 'Sabre' blade running back from the headlights.

Around the back, there are hints of old-shape C4 Coupe, C6 (a little) and Smart Roadster Coupe but overall, it's a handsome beast.

Inside that's continued and with big, enveloping seats and a careful attention to cabin quality detail, the DS5 is a very pleasant place in which to spend time. There are a couple of glitches: the centre console switches are set too far back and the main instruments are a bit uninspiring, but if Citroen was trying to create a premium feel, then it has succeeded.

But not in the back and this is where the DS5's case starts to unravel a little. A car like this, with a DS badge, should be as spacious and as comfy as your lounge. Sadly though, the DS5 just lacks that last inch of knee, foot and headroom to feel properly luxurious in the back. Kids will be fine, adults will not and they're unlikely to be pleased with the cheaper plastics and fiddly electric window switches.

Thankfully the DS reclaims some ground with a big, well shaped 468-litre boot, so it is at least practical.

But what exactly is it? It's certainly  no conventional saloon, and nor is it spacious enough to be an estate (Citroen's own, and excellent, C5 Tourer murders it in the practicality stakes) or high-riding enough to be an SUV. In fact, it tries, as so many have before, to combine elements of each into a coherent whole. And the big surprise is that it comes very close to doing so successfully. After all the last car to try and combine such virtues was the Fiat Croma and  that was a car so bad as to be close to undriveable.

But the DS5 actually manages a decent fist of it. It's handsome enough to make you look past its lack of a separate boot, and in the front at least, comfy and stylish enough to make you believe in its pretensions of luxury. As ever with a Citroen, it’s the little details that sell it. That Sabre blade of chrome we’ve already mentioned, but then there’s the (optional) leather embossed with a gorgeous watch-strap pattern, the little hatch-like individual sunroofs over the driver and passenger, the neat Head Up Display, the aircraft-style switches in the roof and the pretty LED daytime running lights.

Dynamically, it's a mixed bag. Stick to wide, mostly smooth roads and the DS5 feels composed and positive to drive with well weighted steering and excellent body control.

Stray onto twistier, bumpier stretches though and it's not so good. The steering proves under-geared and the ride quality, certainly on the 19" alloys of our test car, was little better than poor, and far too firm and jiggly for a supposedly luxurious French car.

Fitted with a conventional six-speed automatic, the 160bhp 2.0 HDI diesel is lovely, keeping itself mostly quiet, proving itself very punchy and suppressing its emissions and consumption to acceptable levels. There will be a 110bhp eHDI version that uses Citroen's annoyingly jerky EGS automated manual but manages Band A emissions and a very high tech Hybrid4 that keeps the 160bhp diesel, adds a battery-powered rear axle and provides a combined 200bhp with 99g/km emissions. Impressive stuff, but a brief spin showed that it too is hobbled by the awkward EGS box and we didn't have it long enough to see if it can get close to its claimed 3.8-litre per 100km combined fuel consumption figure. If not, then the regular HDI has a still-excellent balance of consumption and performance, and doesn't sacrifice boot space to the Hybrid's bulky battery pack.

What Citroen has wrought with the DS5 is... interesting. To be honest, I doubt that the blinkered Irish car buyer, wracked with conservatism, will ever see past the horde of more conventional three-box shapes that stand between him and the DS5. But for the 150 or so people Citroen Ireland expects to snap one up, there is something very good here.

Yes, the ride needs fixing, and if you  must regularly carry adults in the back then you're better off with a C5, but as ever, Citroen has decided to stretch it's legs out onto the precipitous high-wire marked 'different' and thank god that it's prepared to do so. Perhaps the best illustration of the DS5’s character is to look up its safety rating on www.euroncap.com Quite apart from the fact that it scores exceptionally highly in all aspects of safety, there’s the little panel underneath to contrast it with ‘Comparable Cars.’ None are listed...



Facts & Figures

Citroen DS5 2.0 HDI Auto
Price as tested: TBA
Price range: TBA
On sale: February 2012
Capacity: 1,997cc
Power: 163bhp
Torque: 340Nm
Top speed: 215kmh
0-100kmh: 8.8sec
Economy: 5.1l-100km (51.3mpg)
CO2 emissions: 133g/km (129g/km with 16” wheels)
Road Tax Band: B €156
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star adult: 89% adult, 83% child, 40% pedestrian, 97% safety assist

Long Term Test: Citroen C3 Picasso, 2nd Report

A few thoughts on our long term test C3 Picasso, mostly inspired by a long motorway journey with the kids on board...

1. That fish-bowl windscreen and the v-cut a-pillars really do give a fantastic view out. No more having your vision blocked through long corners or losing sight of pedestrians behind the a-pillar. It's like having your own portable IMAX theatre. Now showing: your life.

2. Subsequent to the above, the kids in the back have an almost equally good view out thanks to large windows and a low-set beltline. Crucial for establishing harmony on a long journey.

3. The way Citroen has managed to did space in this thing continues to baffle me. The C3 hatchback it shares components with is not the most spacious thing in the world, and the Picasso is unfashionably narrow, yet it is remarkably commodious. You can even get three child seats across the back bench at a pinch, our massive 3-wheel Phil&Teds buggy fits in the boot without overwhelming the boot and there's plenty of room up front too.y wife has described it as "the best family car ever" and I'm having a hard time disagreeing with her on that.

4. Its fuel economy is unspectacular but remarkably constant. 6.0-litres per 100km (mid forties MPG) is hardly cutting edge for a small, relatively light car running an efficient 1.6 diesel but it doesn't seem to matter what we do: Urban stop-start, long motorway hauls, trips to the petting zoo, the economy holds constant.

5. It looks utterly brilliant. I know ours is the specced up Code edition and the red-insert wheels and gleaming white paintwork really lift the Picasso'a game, but there simply isn't a better looking small MPV out there. Every other such car just looks like a tall hatchback or a shrunken van. The Picasso looks like nothing else and I love that. Not everyone will, true enough, but it's almost worth the €20k purchase price alone to see how the C3 stands out in a car park full of me-too silver-grey-black hatches and saloons.

6. Croissant crumbs and flakes are almost impossible to hoover up. Must stop stopping at Gourmet Tart Company for in-car snacks.

Long Term Test: Citroen C3 Picasso, 1st report

As a professional hurler on the ditch (I rate cars but very rarely actually buy one) I have long extolled the merits of the Citroen C3 Picasso. Yes it’s French and yes it’s quirky (two things more or less guaranteed to have arch-conservative Irish car buyers heading for the door) but I’ve always reckoned it to be the pick of the mini MPV brigade. In a sea of plainly-styled tall hatchbacks, the Picasso is a cubist painting of a car, and therefore the most appropriately named Citroen Picasso yet (Picasso was a cubist, right?).


Of course, underneath it’s all simple C3 mechanical parts. Now, the C3 itself is a pleasant but ultimately unremarkable small hatch, but already it has donated its oily bits to one of the most enjoyable hot hatches out there; the cute and fun DS3. Can lightning strike again, but in an entirely different section of the market? Time to put my money where my opinions are...

Well, first impressions. Our C3 Picasso rocked up on the driveway looking a bit more distinctive even than the already left-field standard car. Bright white paintwork could have made it look like a delivery van, but the Code special edition trim (costing €21,250 to the standard VTR+’s €20,850) brings with it glossy black inserts around the grille and lights, red piping on the side trim and, best of all, seriously cool alloy wheels with red inserts on the inside of the spokes. It must be the big kid in me, but I really love these.

Inside, you get an excellent level of standard kit including air conditioning, Bluetooth phone, cruise control and speed limiter and an iPod-compatible stereo.

In the back, where the non-big-kids go, there’s a decent amount of space. The Picasso is kind of unfashionably narrow, which means squeezing people into the centre rear seats will take some... well, squeezing, but two up in the back should have plenty of room, and if you need to juggle things around to make some space, the seats split, fold, flip and recline.

Up front, you would think that the narrowness would have driver and passenger rubbing shoulders, but actually there’s plenty of room and the upright driving position is very comfy.

Beyond the driver lies the familiar 90bhp, 230Nm 1.6-litre four cylinder diesel engine. It’s a touch noisier in this installation than we’ve noticed it being in other cars, but it’s still adequately refined. And pretty economical. Our average is currently working out at 6.1-litres per 100km (46.3mpg) but that can improve by a whole litre or more on a gently driven long run and seeing as most of our daily mileage is around town, 46mpg seems pretty good. Besides, and this is a purely subjective thing, it does seem to go forever on a fill of the tank.

What we really love, so far, about the C3 Picasso is its combination of style and practicality. The cabin is robustly built but still looks and feels a cut above the likes of a Toyota Verso-S, there’s lots of space but it feels terrifically wieldy in town and is a cinch to park (excellent visibility through massive windows helps there) and while many would accuse it of being a mumsy people mover, your 6’1” most-definitely-male correspondent feels entirely happy pootling around in it.

So, life feels pretty good in the Picasso household at the moment. No, it’s not a hot hatch to drive, but then it was never supposed to be. It’s showing none of the build frailties that French cars are supposedly prone to and frankly, if you’re going to have a practical family car, why shouldn’t it look this good?

Road Test: Peugeot 508 SW 2.0 HDI Active

Price as tested: €30,600

In brief: Need a family car but can’t bear the thought of an MPV? Here’s your answer. Slinky looks, high quality, good to drive and very economical.


51.3mpg. Or to put it in more up to date figures, 5.5-litres per 100km. Now, it's important to note that that's not a claimed manufacturer's figure, nor the result of some feather-footed economy run with the aircon off and the tyres pumped up to 50psi. That's the average fuel economy I got from a 2.0-litre Peugeot 508 SW, complete with a full load of family and associated bags, buggy and clutter. Now that is impressive.

Peugeot has been something of a diesel-meister ever since the original 205 XRAD and 405 HDI re-programmed our brains as to what a diesel car could be capable of. Since then, Peugeot has won the  Le Mans 24hrs with the awesome diesel-powered 908 race car and, better yet, has given us the most enjoyable-to-drive diesel car on the market in the shape of the gorgeous RCZ 2.0 HDI coupe.

But what Peugeot hasn't had for a while now is a proper rival to the likes of the Mondeo, Passat and Avensis. The 407, introduced in 2005, was decent enough but lacked rear seats space and its cabin was never quite up to the quality levels of the big Ford or VW. With the 508 though, Peugeot is right back in the game and this SW estate model is the best of the bunch.

€28k gets you an SW with the 1.6 HDI 112bhp engine but I'd seriously urge you to try and find the extra pennies to get yourself into this 2.0 HDI 140bhp, for €30,600. With that astonishing economy figure (close to bang on Peugeot's claimed figure of 5.0l/100km on the combined cycle) it'll cost you buttons to run, and with Co2 emissions of 130g/km, it's in the same Band B €156 road tax bracket as the 1.6.

And the SW is so much better looking than the saloon (which is hardly hideous itself). That long curving rear is very reminiscent of the Mercedes E-Class estate and the front looks so much neater and sharper than the tiresome gaping-grille Peugeots of recent years.

Inside, the news gets ever better. Yes, it's a touch plain compared to, say, the Opel Insignia, and the touchy-feely qualities lag just behind the Passat, but overall the quality of fit and finish is excellent, the seats are superbly comfy and little things like the main dials and the stitching on the leather steering wheel look and feel properly premium. There's lots of space in the back seat too, even when it's filled with hyperactive small people, and the boot is a gargantuan 660-litres.

And, and here is the best bit for the car-fancying family man, it's terrific to drive. Not quite as immersive as a Mondeo, perhaps, but beautifully balanced with especially sweet steering and bags of front end grip. Even with the kids and bags on board it swoops in perfect rhythm from corner to corner, and the ride quality feels a touch more supple in the SW than it does in the saloon.

And that economical diesel raises its game too, punching hard with 320Nm of torque and propelling the SW to a very respectable 0-100kmh time of 10.1secs.

Standard equipment on the Active model we drove includes Bluetooth phone, USB iPod connection, panoramic glass roof, 17” alloys, rear parking sensors, hill-holder clutch and split-zone climate control.

So if you've got kids to haul, and don't specifically need the seven seats of an MPV, then get yourself one of these. A proper, comfy, spacious family wagon that just happens to be handsome, fun to drive and exceptionally economical. Family life needn't be dull, after all.

Facts & Figures

Peugeot 508 SW 2.0 HDI Active
Price as tested: €30,600
Range price: €24,850 to €35,150
Capacity: 1,997cc
Power: 140bhp
Torque: 320Nm
Top speed: 210kmh
0-100kmh: 10.1sec
Economy: 5.0l-100km (56.4mpg)
CO2 emissions: 130g/km
VRT Band: B. €156 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star: 90% adult, 87% child, 41% pedestrian, 97% safety assist