Peugeot 3008 review: Stylish, tech-packed and impressive, but it has a few quirks

When you think about it, the French have been in a pretty rich vein of form of late when it comes to the design and presentation of their products. That has been particularly so for Renault, whose recent efforts have truly stirred up what was a pot of particularly thin gruel.

Such as the mainstream Captur and Scenic, as well as the lightly left of field Rafale caught the eye moreso than anything else from the Regie in recent years and with the new Renault 5 coming rapidly down the tracks, the company is in very rude health.

Over at their bitter rival Peugeot, things have been slightly better for some time now with the previous generation 2008, the 3008 and the 5008, as well as the 208, all being outstanding, but keeping that sort of form up has been something of a legacy issue for the French marque.

The new 3008 is now with us and the new 5008 will be along shortly, so it has been interesting to see if the brand can keep up its form and keep potential usurpers – like Renault – at bay. This week we’re trying two versions of the new 3008 and I have to say that far from going off the edge of a cliff, the people at Rueil-Malmaison have upped their game again.

Thing is – once you’ve had a nailed-on winner, as the previous 3008 was, it can be hard to repeat the trick. The last 3008 was an undeniably handsome beast and trying to emulate the feat whilst also being innovative and fresh can be a tough ask.

Peugeot has addressed the difficulty by veering towards making the new one look more like a Coupe SUV – that dreaded segment largely populated by poseurs and faux hairy-chested automotive weirdos. It is a niche that we have singularly disliked from the off, largely because most of them have the driving dynamics of a coal bucket and not the coupe they’re supposed to be.

The Renault Rafale is one of the few of this genre whose talents actually merit praise, but the new 3008 can now be added to that list, even though Peugeot steadfastly refuse to label it with the ‘SUV Coupe’ tag. They describe it as a ‘fastback SUV’ which is as good an exercise in splitting hairs as you could come across.

But then, in the same way the new – and very impressive 408 – is most certainly what we have previously labelled ‘a non-SUV, SUV’ the 3008 is a non-SUV Coupe, SUV Coupe.

On the basis of the old truism that ‘if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it almost certainly is a duck’ this is an SUV Coupe, with its roofline swooping down at the rear and defiantly painting a coupe picture in the minds of the consumer.

For all that, it is a pretty car, with a beautiful front end which has a sort of 3D vibe going on with the body colour on the grille and the ‘Lion’s claw’ LED lights reaching deep into the bumper. The rear end too catches the eye with its advanced light clusters and rakish aerodynamics.

The interior too is fresh and innovative – to a point. Sure, the ‘Panoramic i-Cockpit’ now featuring a paper-thin single screen for the infotainment and instrumentation. BMW has tried this sort of thing before with some success, but this system – mounted as it is in a 21” curved single piece of glass – is particularly impressive.

Décor too is neat and while the soup-du-jour trick of overlaying the dashboard with some form of cloth has been adopted, it works well and appear able to withstand the daily rigour of family life.

Peugeot has also adapted the driving position to allow taller drivers to actually see the instrumentation behind the tiny ‘i-Cockpit’ steering wheel – something they previously could not achieve. With the new car you don’t need to have the steering wheel practically on your knees to allow you assimilate what the car is doing.

When you sit in and look around, there is a premium aura about the layout – probably moreso that it actually is – but there are one or two issues. The siting of the switches for the electric windows are at an angle in the door armrest and therefore need your visual attention when seeking to use them which is not great.

Trying to find certain other switches too, takes a little while (the seat heating button, in particular) but you can programme everything to your individual taste using the toggle buttons – if you have the patience. The dash-mounted gearbox controls also annoyed- initially at least.

Comfort levels are excellent (C’est vrai, il etait Francais!), but it’s something of a mystery why rear legroom is so tight in a car this size and that might be something which could affect family sales. The lack of a fore/aft sliding rear seat is also curious. That said, the boot is very generous.

Having driven both the electric and mild-hybrid petrol versions of the car, it is possible to say that both are incredibly smooth drives, but still engaging in the handling and ride departments. The electric is the more powerful of the two, with 210 bhp and a range of just over 500km.

That range is subjective, however, depending on what sort of charger you use and I found I could only get it to provide a range of just over 400km and if your driving was in any way spirited, then it ate juice at a prodigious rate. Still the acceleration at 8.8 seconds for the 0-100 km/h dash and a top speed of 170 km/h were noteworthy.

I will stand accused of being a Luddite by saying I preferred the mild-hybrid petrol option with a system which incorporates Peugeot’s 1.2 litre turbocharged engine, combined with a 15.6 kW motor and a 0.89 kWh battery, which is quite a bit slower than the electric (10.2 seconds 0-100 km/h) but it is very economic and will return a 5.5 l/100km figure (50.9 mpg). It can be smart enough when in Sport mode, but it drinks a lot more petrol.

Both are front wheel drive and have auto gearboxes, with the electric having a single speed operation and the petrol a six-speed system. The former works well but the latter feels more like a real car.

When it launched the new 3008, Peugeot did promise a 700km range electric, but we have yet to see that. When we do drive it, it might make a more favourable impression than the one we tested. Even so, we still lent towards the petrol as the more practical option of the two.

Both these cars are cultured and pragmatic choices (although the rear space issue might prove contentious) and really nice to drive; the electric will work well for those who want a green car, but it certainly is not the be-all-and-end-all when it comes to EVs and while the petrol might be slower, but it does have obvious advantages.

Curiously, though, the electric is cheaper than the petrol by some considerable amount that that may well swing numbers in its favour, but the bottom line with either is that you’re getting something which has a lovely design and is beautifully built. It also drives really well and is oozing with tech and spec.

If anyone expected Peugeot to drop the ball with the third generation 3008, they were sadly misguided and this is a good example of the manufacturer being right at the top of its game.