Peugeot 308 SW Allure 1.6 BlueHDi

Sometimes it’s all too easy to be cynical about the level of technology in cars today parking sensors, adaptive cruise control, automatic headlights the list is seemingly endless. And while these extras have arguably made our driving lives easier and our roads safer, the old argument about it making drivers lazy persists. Well this month, the kind of technology decried by old-school motorists saved me from a potentially serious accident.

The A34 is one busy bit of road running from the M4, all the way up to the likes of Oxford and the M40 and Bicester. Heading home after a busy working week, I joined the dual carriageway and headed south. It was after four o’clock in the afternoon, and I could see the road was busy from the string of red tail lights heading off into the distance. With a chain of lorries ahead of me, I indicated to pull out into the outside lane, looked over my shoulder, saw nothing and began to move over… just at the point when the 308’s blind spot warning light came on there was a car hiding in the outside lane. I pulled back over, as a black Range Rover with a personal plate, but not a single light on, blasted past me, easily exceeding the speed limit. Speeding.

In a black car. In the dark. With no lights on. Genius! Had it not been for the blind spot warning system, I honestly believe he would have hit me. Given the speed he was doing, and with a lorry to the left of me and a steel crash barrier to the right, the consequences would not have been pleasant.

The last few weeks haven’t exactly proven to be taxing for the Peugeot it’s been carrying me to Oxfordshire and back on a weekly basis and it’s proved itself to be a more highly effective companion on the A303 and the aforementioned A34. It’s quiet and comfortable and the two and half hour journey passes very quickly it’s a car that’s ideal for this sort of stuff. The only irritation that the 308’s thrown up on these long runs is the satellite navigation system. Although I know my way, I like to set the navigation, as it will give me an indication of my arrival time and also lets me know if there are any traffic problems along the route, which considering it’s mainly the A303, is always a distinct possibility. Annoying then that the system doesn’t always behave as it should. Sometimes it will hop you onto adjacent roads, or at worse suggest you’re in a field alongside it! It will then bark at you to return to your route, even though you haven’t left the road but that may just be the limitations of the GPS signal. Other times it will simply forget your destination.

Another minor irritation with the 308 is the audio system it works brilliantly for DAB digital radio and audio streaming, except for one thing. If you’re listening to music via Bluetooth and switch the ignition off, the car defaults back to the radio, meaning that you have to tell the car you want to continue your navigation, acknowledge the system’s safety warning and then reselect ‘Bluetooth’ as your media source. It would be nice if it just remembered that I predominantly used the Bluetooth audio streaming system!