When you think of a hatchback, odds are the Golf is probably one of the first to cross your mind, but a Peugeot 308? Probably not in your top 10, but after driving this one I think it should be. It’s remarkably fun and playful, peppy and handles relatively well, all while still being fairly comfortable and practical. Oh, and you can pick one of these up for between £6,000 and £7,000 less than a similar spec, mileage and year Golf. Sounds like a bargain!
The specific car I’m looking at is the 308 GT Line – the one with a 3 cylinder, 1.2 litre, turbocharged engine, 6 speed manual gearbox, and the sporty interior trim. That little turbo helps the rather small displacement engine push out 130PS and remarkably 230 Nm of torque. It drives the front wheels through a 6 speed manual gearbox, with a quoted top speed of 117 mph and a 0-60 of 8.8 seconds. Actually, let’s see how true that is here!
In the real world, in the cold and wet conditions we had, the best we could get was right around 10 seconds. Considering that’s 10 seconds from a dig, without subtracting the 1ft rollout time, that’s pretty spot on. Braking was also impressive at just 3.3 seconds from 60 mph, or around 47m (154ft). That’s plenty fine for a car of this size, weight and class, and happily the pedal offers good feel and modularity as well as a progressive bite making for an enjoyable and easy ride.
While the best I could do was around 14 seconds, the car’s owner jumped in and blew my time out of the water with a 10 second run. Considering that’s with 1ft rollout included I’m pretty happy to say this thing does get up to speed pretty well. It pulls remarkably well off the lights – it’s not quite a hot hatch but it’s got enough go to get you out of trouble (but not so much you get into trouble either). On the motorway it’s pretty stable and fairly comfortable. Road noise is a little loud even at 70, but it’s no worse than any other car in it’s class.
I was actually rather impressed with the car’s composure even through more twisty backroads, of course being front wheel drive if you push too hard the front will give first, and a clutch-drop will have your front wheels skidding, but if you are staying within the speed limits it’s good fun. It had a lot less body roll than I was expecting, and gave me a decent amount of confidence while throwing it around. It’s fun, it’s playful, it’s something you can throw around and know you can’t get yourself into too much trouble and that’s great.
One benefit of having a small displacement engine is of course the fuel economy. The trip computer reckons over 6000 miles the car has averaged 35 mpg, which considering the owner is a little… lead footed… is pretty impressive. That’s not the only practical aspect either, as you get 470 litres of boot space. For context the same spec Golf has 380 litres, so a substantial improvement. You even get a passthrough if you want to take your Peugeot to the Alps to go Skiing (or B&Q for some wood…).
It’s also a 5 door, and is actually pretty spacious. With the driver’s seat where I would have it, I can fit in the back just fine. If I sit bolt-upright my headroom is pretty limited especially thanks to the large panoramic sunroof here, but I can get relatively comfortable overall. It’s also a triple seat, albeit for three slim people who are very good friends. And of course you’ve got an arm rest, complete with cup holders built in. They are fixed rather than the sort of pop-out style, but they are far enough forward that I wouldn’t be that bothered by them.
Up front is a pretty nice place to be. The seats are the GT Line sporty trim, meaning they have reasonable side bolsters to hold you in place. Despite that, they are pretty comfortable. They hold me fairly well, while still being something I could be happy making a longer journey in. The instrument cluster is nice enough with opposing dials and a basic display in the middle.
Most of the car’s functions, including the trip computer, are all done through the infotainment display. Everything from the heater controls – save for one or two physical buttons below for windscreen heating – to the sound system, save for the volume dial, are all controlled through it. You’ve got built in navigation if you want it, or both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay through a wired connection. Everything is pretty responsive – it’s not perfect but certainly good enough to be useful, although a couple more physical buttons to control things like temperature would definitely be nice. It also lets you enable or disable things like Traction control and parking sensors and see TPMS info, although we couldn’t make it show the actual pressures.
Seriously, the steering wheel is honestly comically small. Like, it’s perfectly usable, and the power steering is so light that you really don’t need the extra leverage from a larger wheel, but it just looks hilarious in an otherwise sporty and… normal car. Luckily despite both it’s stature and the very light power steering, you do still get a bit of feedback through it. A lot of cars in this class have gone the route of disconnecting the driver from the road as much as possible, making everything mushy and vague.
Happily that’s not the case here, especially with the gear stick. It notches nicely into gear. It takes a slight bit of force, just the right amount so you know it’s in but not falling into gear. It’s also nice and firm, unlike a Focus of the same year which just flaps around even when engaged in gear.
My only complaint, as in proper almost-a-deal-breaker problem, is the clutch. I have no idea what Peugeot have done here, but it’s just awful. There is no biting point, not through the pedal anyway. Mechanically it clearly works fine, but through the pedal you have absolutely no feedback, no way of knowing if you are at the bite point or a million miles off.
Considering I only really have one gripe about the car, well that’s pretty good in my books. Sure, it is a more budget “family car”, “economy car”, but it’s remarkably premium inside. I’d actually say it matches or even exceeds the overall quality in the Golf R I reviewed a few weeks ago, although isn’t quite at the level of my S4 or the BMW 5 series I’ve featured a number of times too. At the time of filming, you can find one of these, with a similar year and mileage, for around £14,000. A Golf of the same year, mileage and horsepower would set you back more like £20,000, making the 308 a pretty remarkable deal. I can’t say I’d buy one myself, I prefer something a little older and faster, but if you are looking for a newer, reliable hatchback runabout, I would definitely consider one of these.
