Peugeot 308 1.2 Active

The Spanish island of Mallorca is a mountainous little spud, and possesses roads that rival the great alpine passes of the European continent. There’s just one thing that prevents me from hailing these incredible feats of road engineering as mankind’s own gift to drivers the traffic. Even in late summer with the first chilly harbingers of autumn blowing, the serpentine tarmac routes are choking with
a constant peloton of tour buses, sedately driven rentals, horse riders, and cyclists. It seems like half of Europe is on holiday here, the congestion exaggerated by the tortuous nature of a roadscape packed full of first-gear hairpins and testing gradients.

The driving environment selected for the international launch venue of the new Peugeot 508 and new 308 powertrains therefore provides the perfect challenge for testing the overtaking performance of their pre shrunken petrol engines. How would the new 1.6 four under the bonnet of the largest car in Peugeot’s current repertoire and the new 1.2 triple that now powers the 2014 European Car of the Year cope?

The answer is quite adequately thanks. Neither car will set lap records at the Nürburgring, nor put ‘the fear of Peugeot’ into Porsches at the traffic lights, but they offer ready access to motive force in lightweight packages that offer plenty of dynamic benefits. They therefore drove effortlessly past the slower vehicles, seemingly floating on the wings of Mercury. They also allow drivers to sleep
straight in their beds at night through their parsimonious use of fuel. The 1.2 in the 308 might only drink from a 53-litre tank, but will easily roam more than 1500 km on the reserve. During real-world testing, a team of Peugeot engineers recently found that the manual model could extract 1810 kilometres of travel from 51.4 litres of fuel.

Both these motors have a new ally at their side Peugeot’s spanking new six-speed automatic gearbox. Its co-development with Aisin Warner in Japan meant the accumulation of many air points for Peugeot’s top auto transmission engineer, Isabelle Naudin, but all the trips have handsomely paid off. The third generation AT6 slushie from the Japanese gearbox specialist is exclusively for Peugeot’s use, and is both more compact and lighter than most transmissions of its type at 82 kg. Madame Naudin’s team also targeted more efficient early lock-ups for the slippage of the torque converter when driven in its normal operating mode. Selecting a two-pedal 508 over a manual therefore only adds a mere seven grams of CO2 per kilometre to the carbon footprint of the car. In the 96 kW/230 Nm 1.2-litre 308, the environmental cost of two-pedal driving convenience drops to just three
extra grams per kilometer, the automatic version sipping at a rate of 4.9L/100km on average according to the lab tests, just 0.2 more than the manual.

The tight overtaking opportunities of the Mallorcan mountain roads definitely require the pressing of the large ‘sport’ button located near the auto’s wriggly gate gear lever in both cars before they’ll give of their best. The gearbox then holds ratios to absolute engine rev limits and doesn’t indulge in unnecessary upshifts when the driver steps off the throttle between bends. Hit the brakes with any real intent and the gearbox will downshift at just the right moment to add engine braking.
The service provided to the driver is good enough to ignore the manual shift paddles located behind the steering wheel.

Although the larger Pug gets a new centre console with a touch screen to eliminate a few secondary controls and allow fitment of both a reversing camera and sat-nav, it somehow missed out on the flasher finished shift paddles of the top new 308 models in this mid-life upgrade. Despite the omission, and the retention of a more conventional cockpit layout instead of the more innovative
heads-up instrument locations that the 308 sports, the new 508 still has the potential to blow away some of the showroom dust that large-medium cars have attracted lately.

The 508 range is again topped by the GT with its 2.2-litre diesel. While this might appear appropriate marketing given that the heaviest-hitting diesel develops peaks of 150kW and 450Nm, to me, that hallowed GT badge should have been dished out to the new 1.6 petrol model instead. A high-pressure turbo allows the lighter engine to develop decent peaks of 121 kW and 240 Nm, the latter amount of
driving force delivered at just 1400rpm. And where the diesel runs out of puff at a lowly 3500rpm, the 1.6 will kick on for another 2500rpm, giving the benzene burner much more of a sporty flavor. Add the handling improvements that the better front/rear weight distribution and the petrol’s use of double-wishbone front suspension instead of MacPherson struts enable, and it’s clear to me that the wrong car got to be called a Gran Turismo.

In truth, that’s a label that neither 508 model fully earns, thanks to electric steering assistance that errs too much on the side of reduced driver effort at the expense of enthusiast appeal. These are superbly comfortable, well-equipped and luxuriously-finished cars with some of the smallest environmental footprints in their class, and upgrades like the new gearbox, classier looks, and more sophisticated
electronics keep them class-competitive rather than class-leading.

The new 308, especially in 1.2 Allure spec mated to the new six-speed auto and equipped with a special driver appeal raising package, is a cracking drive. It’s no co-incidence that the car is the current 2014 European Car of the Year, having taken over the mantle that the seventh generation Golf won in 2013. Along with the new Mazda3 that debuted this year, the 308 raises its driving game considerably, and at least matches the Golf’s sense of play. To that, add the Pug’s stately yet shapely exterior design, the high level of furnishing and finessing inside (on top spec models), and desirable kit like reversing cameras and a touch screen large enough to make an iPad blush, and you have one of the most complete cars in the compact segment. With its Alfa-like design integrity and visual balance, and an interior that out-classes the Volkswagen’s, the 308 arguably looms as more of an Audi A3 competitor than a Golf rival just so long as you're shopping near the top of the New Zealand model range.

The launch drive highlight for me was fanging an automatic 308 1.2 Allure through the Mallorcan hinterland with the ‘Sport’ button firmly activated. Not only did this adjust the calibrations of the new six speed and add welcome heft to the steering assistance, it also aided aural appeal by piping the tremulous song of the engine through the audio system. This boxer six cylinder with more bass
chorus was then conducted by the software of the automatic gearbox, which would trigger throttle flares when downshifting in response to any hard braking by the driver. I don’t think that I’ve ever felt so engaged and thrilled by the act of driving a family oriented compact car before certainly never while driving one with an engine of such modest cubic capacity and such dramatically increased environmental responsibility.

The performance of the 308’s new EMP2 platform and the suspension set-up help promote such impressions. The former weighs 70kg less than the previous platform and contributes half of the 140kg mass saving over the previous generation 308 (the rest comes from the lighter powertrain components and shorter body overhangs and window pillars), yet rigidity is much improved. The suspension then holds the flex-free structure flat when cornering, the stout stabiliser bars resisting weight transfer. Add precise and agile steering geometry and a throttle-adjustable tucking of
the nose whenever understeer threatens and you have a chassis performance worthy of a GT badge. If Porsche ever made a comfortable riding front drive family hatch, it’d probably drive a lot like this one.

The models in the coming New Zealand 308 range reflect the deteriorating market conditions for lightweight diesel cars here thanks to our more rapacious Road User Charges. So distributor, Sime Darby NZ, has opted just to bring in a single diesel model, a $42,990 110 kW/370 Nm 2.0-litre Allure-spec flagship with just about all the kit available for the 308 with the exception of a panoramic sunroof. The best news is that the little 1.2 petrol ‘grunt monkey’ powers most of the rest of the range, and earns the nickname by developing its peak torque at just 1400 rpm and holding it at that level until 5500. One point two 308s start at $30,990 in manual Access-spec and ride on 15-inch steel wheels, with the new automatic gearbox costing a further $2000. A further two grand secures the key to the $34,990 1.2 Active automatic model, and is the first grade to sport the new 9.7-inch touchscreen and ride on size-16 alloys. The top petrol model will be available from January next
year, and is a $38,990 1.6 turbo petrol four cylinder in Allure spec, which receives more supportive sports seats, 17-inch alloys, leccy parking brake, cruise, and a reversing camera. An automatic 1.2 Allure model could be added to the range in the near future, and would be my pick of the petrol powered litter.

As for the new 508s, an as-yet undecided range is likely to arrive in the second quarter of 2015, likely with diesel engines only. Seems other markets can celebrate the point of difference that a medium large Peugeot model can make with a small capacity turbo petrol, but ours is still stuck in an old-hat ‘no replacement for displacement’ mindset.