Road Tests
Read the road tests that have appeared in Local Cars magazine
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Peugeot 308
Summer is here! The sap has risen and we all look to enjoy the joys of the road which is always better when sitting in an open top car to feel at one with the countryside, and as one of my alter egos would say, “The joy of the open road! O bliss! Poop-poop! O my! O my!” These words from, Mr Toad of Wind in the Willows, (the other alter ego is bowtie-wearing former F1 champion, Mike Hawthorn), aptly and accurately summed up how I felt as I drove with the roof down of the new Peugeot 308 CC on test thanks to Dobies of Whitehaven!
The Peugeot 3008 CC has just been launched and it was great to one of the fi rst in the county to get my hands on one, so with sun beating down from a clear blue sky, it seemed the perfect time to get into an open top and take to the roads of West Cumbria.
CC or Coupe-Cabriolet is a Peugeot invention and as soon as I saw the 308 I was impressed by its fl owing lines, sculpted sides and refi ned backside.
The front is hallmark Peugeot with the rampant lion taking centre stage above the deeply grinning grill and the inscrutable, slanty eyes of the lights sweeping upwards into the wing.
The huge windscreen is massively raked, which Peugeot say is part of the Windstop system which protects passengers from the eff ects of air turbulence; it also provides eff ective protection were you ever stupid enough to roll it over!
In a normal open top car, the air rushing over the screen creates low pressure in the cabin and air is pulled in from the back which does not do her-in-door’s hair to much good but the clever French Peugeot system mitigates the eff ect, and I found there was little buff eting at speed.
Moreover, as an open-top freak, the ones I have owned over the years needed an Irving fl ying jacket with a huge collar to stop my neck and back of my head freezing but such worries are overcome in the 308 CC by the clever Airwave system. This ducts warm air into the driver and passenger head rests which, with the reduced turbulence, means the cabin is a very cosy and draft-free place.
The rake does help the lines with the roof up but with the roof down I found the screen, which swoops virtually over one’s head, took some away the sensation of being in an open top.
However, as Peugeot estimate that 55 per cent of buyers will be women who will not want to ruffl e their hair, the design is spot on – not that I noticed because I am bald!
The interior oozes quality, from the leather option on this SE model, the good carpets, very high quality, textured plastic to the aluminium touches on dash and doors.
The steering wheel is more like an F1 item with a fl attened bottom, and the semi-sporting image is enhanced by the aluminium pedals.
The tasteful instrumental binnacle, with it very clear black-on- white dials, the swoopy dash and centre console is even more sporty with a very comfortable stubby gear stick, alongside which is the handbrake for emergency handbrake turns if you ever need to take avoidance tactics!
The list of extras is impressive, and I found the entertainment system excellent but though the CC is billed as four-seater, with my seat well back, the back seat passengers would need to be in the height range of brats!
Powered by a very willing 1.6-litre petrol producing 150bhp and 180Nm of torque, though never designed as a sportscar, the 308 CC bowls along very spiritedly with a 0 - 62mph dash of 10 seconds and topping out at around 130mph were you allowed.
Delivered in an unfussed way, helped by a good six-speed box and superb sound insulation, the 308 CC is really a grand tourer – a boulevardier built for nipping down to the Cote d’Azur for the weekend, or Silloth if you are hard-up!
Being a Peugeot, the 308 is blessed by a good chassis which combines good road holding with suffi cient suspension compliancy to absorb the Cumbrian pot holes.
Most saloons with their roof taken off (which in eff ect the 308 CC is) tend to have a degree of scuttle shake because there is a loss of rigidity, but the 308 has a huge amount of extra strengthen in the screen pillars and elsewhere, so even on the roughest roads shake was virtually eliminated, though there was the hint of a shimmy over the worst bits with the roof down but not with it up.
The Peugeot certainly attracted a good deal of admiring looks.
Though, as stated, it is likely the 308 CC’s major buyers will be women, it has suffi cient masculinity not to require men to hide behind a mask while driving, something I think they may need to do in some smaller and decidedly girly CCs, and it has enough power to be fun.
Of course, with all the electric motors to whiz the roof up and down, and have space to enough to hide it when down, not only is the boot space compromised, it all adds extra weight, which in turn dulls the fuel consumption to around 37mpg.
Keenly priced from £19,495, the SE as tested will be £21,295, the Peugeot 308 CC is a classy set of open air French wheels! |
