Peugeot 3008
Say Peugeot and immediately an image comes to mind. It may be Granddad's 504, or that iconic 205 Gti if you were living outside South Africa in the '80s, which started the old hot hatch thing, or it could be flashbacks of bad resale value and bitter experience.
Let me kick off by saying the 3008 is nothing like that. Nothing
quite like anything else either. It is sexy, aggressive looking, both
butch and yet, somehow feminine. It is a bit of a conundrum. Well
made. Ergonomically excellent, bar one small fault, and overall a
bit of an achievement. You may have guessed I like this one, a lot.
In a world of people buying 4x4's for no good reason, this so called crossover answers many of the pseudo 4x4 users needs as far as I can tell. High seating position, good view, robustness, tall to get into, and has some serious road presence with that impressive new Peugeot from end. The predatory nose looks like it will swallow up lesser road users in its path. We are talking sexy. Get the colour choice right and there is some serious wow to it.
On to the practical stuff; It takes 5 in comfort with plenty space on a two level boot deck for baggage and privacy. Cool features from a fighter plane like heads-up display showing speed and speed sensitive cruise control details, refrigerated cavernous centre cubby, to a 1.6m2 panoramic sunroof and passenger pull up sunscreens.
This thing is loaded to the hilt with gizmos and tech. Brilliant at this level. About the only failure I can pick out was rubbing against the door seal on ingress and exit, the B pillar is a little too far forward.
You don't actually get irritated by it, but at only 7,000km's the test unit's seal was completely worn away by this. Nit-picking really.
Dynamically, the suspension is tuned to compliancy, absorbing bad roads with aplomb. Not at the expense of ride control and cornering attitude with plenty engineering to keep what could have been a wallow ride very flat through corners. Don't get me wrong, not sports car league, but able to hustle on pot-holed municipality blacktop with sure-footedness. The R309,419 Executive model in 1.6 THP 6 - speed manual form is a winner in my opinion. Fuel consumption claimed at a realistic 7.1l/100km on the mixed cycle.115kW and 240Nm do the job admirably.
The 5 Year 90 000km service plan and 3 year 100 000km warranty should allay some fears. Who knows what resale value this one will maintain. I still think it is a winner. I would certainly have one.
