New Peugeot 208

Peugeot 208, the regeneration! In my previous post, I talked about the first day event of Peugeot 208, now I want to talk more about the new Peugeot 208. As you know that, 208 replaces the 207 model. Honestly, I always like the 206 but never managed to create an emotional bond with the 207. However, this time things are different! Peugeot 208 is a real class-leading car, I know many people will say Peugeot suffers from reliability but things have changed!

Peugeot improved the manufacturing quality and like other brands they started to use laser melding technology during the production process. Also, Peugeot 208 offers a distinctive interior and exterior design. This is one of the key points why I like with 208! Exterior design reflects the Peugeot identity and also offers a totally distinctive character. Interior is not like old days; quality of plastic is really high, aluminium gear knob looks amazing, LED mood light is tempting but I am not into this that much. This may not sound interesting but air condition controls are really high quality, the feedback of the buttons, the amount of pressure you need to apply to change the temperature are so well designed. These minor details improves the overall quality and brand image.

Peugeot 208 is 7 cm longer than the previous model and offers really huge amount of space in both at front and rear seats. During the test drive, we drove a diesel and a petrol engine and the interior noise was totally the same, actually there was not engine noise inside! The suspension is stiff, not that annoying but it is stiff. I really like this with Peugeot 208, you feel the sportive characters in every aspect. The steering wheel of 208 is really small, you may compare with a go-kart as well. I never seen this small steering wheel, and for better fuel consumption it is electric! I know it reduces the feedback, even the Porsche 911 uses the same technology. Welcome to new world!

Peugeot 208 is now available with manual transmission and you don’t have the very high clutch feeling. However, I don’t like manual cars. If you are looking for automatic Peugeot 208, you need to wait a bit more and you will have the automated manual transmission. Peugeot 208 may not be offered with a double clutch gearbox in near future and some people complain about this but, double clutch gearbox is an expensive equipment and if you are looking for a reasonably priced car, you cannot have the double clutch. If you know how to drive an automated manual gearbox, it is really comfortable.

Peugeot 208 offer gesture touch screen like in iPhone, and also they will be offering Peugeot App Store in near future. I don’t know the operation system of the user interface but I suggest it might be Android based. I used the touch screen in 208 and I found it really useful and easy to control. Peugeot did not pack each function into touch screen and you won’t be get lost under the menus. It is worth to buy!

And a big improvement from Peugeot, new 208 is 178kg lighter than 207! 178kg may sound a small number but in terms of automotive, it is a huge number! Lighter car means, better fuel economy, better acceleration and better handling.

Will I buy a Peugeot 208? When they offer the automatic gearbox, I will go for it. Even though the manual is really comfortable to drive but I am a bit lazy thanks to congested traffic.

Lastly, Peugeot produces more than 15 million 2-Series since 1920s. And Peugeot decided to keep 8 in each model, so we won’t see any 209 or 309 in future. All future Peugeot models will be branded with 0 in the middle and 8 at the end.

Technical Details:

208 diesel range:

- 1.4 l HDi FAP 68bhp, 160Nm, 5-speed manual; CO2: 98g/km,74.3mpg

- 1.4 l e-HDi FAP 68bhp, 160Nm, EGC Stop & Start; CO2: 87g/km,83.1mpg

- 1.6 l e-HDi FAP 92bhp, 230Nm, 5-speed manual Stop&Start; CO2: 98g/km, 74.3mpg

- 1.6 l e-HDi FAP 92bhp, 230Nm, EGC Stop&Start; CO2: 98g/km, 74.3mpg

- 1.6 l e-HDi FAP 115bhp, 285Nm (1), 6-speed manual; CO2: 99g/km,74.3mpg

208 petrol range:

- 1.0l VTi 68bhp; 95Nm, 5-speed manual; CO2: 99g/km, 65.7mpg

- 1.2l VTi 82bhp; 118Nm, 5-speed manual; CO2: 104g/km, 62.8mpg

- 1.4l VTi 95bhp; 136Nm, 5-speed manual; CO2: 129g/km, 50.4mpg

- 1.6 litre VTi 120bhp; 160Nm, 5-speed; CO2: 134 g/km, 48.7mpg