Has the long-awaited recovery of the Peugeot brand finally begun? Even if things remain terrible in China with a year-to-date collapse of 30 per cent in a rising market, October was a good month for the brand across Europe. The 3008 and 5008 are major factors in the improvement but so too is the updated 308 range.
France: Peugeot charges ahead again at last
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Look no further than France for strong signs of a Peugeot comeback in the European region.
Citroën and DS are still losing market share, but look no further than France for strong signs of a Peugeot comeback in the European region. In October, the lion logo brand outperformed all other major marques with the exception of Renault (+18.5 per cent) with a gain of 18.3 percent. The arch-rivals were neck and neck, Renault taking the number one slot with 32,648 registrations compared to Peugeot’s 32,273. For the year to the end of October, Renault remains well ahead with 342,353 sales versus Peugeot’s 304,420. That gap has been getting smaller though.
The recent facelift for the 308 has given the car a real boost, with sales of 7,591 units last month for a year to date total of 75,697. That places it well ahead of the Mégane and Golf.
In Britain, Peugeot sales were down by 12 per cent in October, so effectively flat given that the market fell by the same percentage. The introduction of the 5008 will probably help the brand in November, although Groupe PSA insists that all of its divisions are geared towards having a lower break even point and maximising margins whereas in the past, Peugeot and Citroën often sought volume as their priorities.
Groupe PSA now down to two C segment models
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By GlobalDataThe updated 308 has to be one of the best choices in the Golf segment for those who love driving. All it takes to see that is the small and thick-rimmed steering wheel set low so as to give a go kart-like driving position. Not everyone likes this, though PSA doesn’t mind as it now has the Opel/Vauxhall Astra as an alternative if not a Citroën too: the rarely seen C4 is about to go out of production and won’t be replaced until 2020.
For those who wonder if crossovers and SUVs will steadily push hatchbacks and estates out of the mainstream in the C segment, they need only look at how successful the Golf is in its two big European markets. In Germany it’s almost always the number one model, while in Britain, VW’s regional best seller has been number one on occasion during 2017 and makes a regular appearance in the top five or even top three. So there is plenty of opportunity for others, such as the 308, especially with Ford’s perplexing decision to have allowed the Focus to become so old.
Peugeot UK offers the 308 in five models grades, the most expensive of which is GTi. Elsewhere in the range, the emphasis is on making this the sporty option for anyone shopping in the C segment, with two trim levels which suggest that. After Active, which is base, and Allure above it, there is GT Line and then GT, with GTi at the top, priced from GBP28,590. The cheapest 308 is the GBP18,750 110hp 1.2-litre five-door hatchback. The base estate has the same powertrain and costs GBP19,520.
Multiple petrol and diesel engine choice
A new 180hp 2.0-litre BlueHDi is reserved for the 308 GT.
Engine choice across the all-turbo 308 range starts with a 110hp 1.2-litre PureTech, followed by a 131hp version of the same three-cylinder petrol unit. Then come 99hp and 120hp 1.6-litre BlueHDi diesels as well as Groupe PSA’s newest 130hp 1.5-litre BlueHDi. If you’d like more oomph in a diesel, then you must pay up for GT Line and the 150PS 2.0-litre BlueHDi. Peugeot makes a six-speed automatic available for this engine, while a newer eight-speed gearbox is fitted as standard to the most powerful diesel: a 180hp 2.0-litre BlueHDi which is reserved for the 308 GT. There is a petrol alternative for the GT too, which is a 205hp 1.6-litre.
Driving any 308 is an experience unlike other cars in the C segment. It starts with what Peugeot calls its i-Cockpit, which is the idea of having the steering wheel low down and the dials up high. The rev counter spins anti-clockwise and is on your right, which can mean a kind of synchronicity of the needles as the car accelerates. It can look strange at first but at least Peugeot has made an attempt at making this model stand out in what is a crowded class.
SW: up to 1,775 litres of boot capacity
Plastics in these newly facelifted cars have a superior feel to what went before and the whole interior is a good place to be. There are some genuine oddities, though, such as a glovebox which cannot take the owner’s manual. This means it slides backwards and forwards in one of the front doors unless you stash it in the boot.
In the SW (estate), the 810l luggage compartment is the most commodious in the class and with the ‘magic flat’ seats folded, up to 1,775l is available. Peugeot has specified a space saver spare in a special compartment below a panel in the floor but in the GTi, which comes only as a hatchback, it’s a puncture repair kit.
Weight – the 308’s secret weapon
One of many commendable things about any 308 is its weight. The GTi tips the scales at a mere 1,205kg, which is why it can charge to 62mph in 6.0 seconds. Top speed is restricted to 155mph. In the other variant which I tried, a 150hp 2.0-litre HDi SW, weight came in at 1,315kg and 62mph is reached in 9.2 seconds, with a v-max of 130mph. The CO2 and Urban averages for the diesel estate were 102g/km and 72.mpg, while the GTi’s equivalents are a still impressive 139g/km and 47.1mpg.
For the keen driver, both these engines have a lot of appeal, the diesel’s 370Nm bettering the maximum torque output of the GTi by 40Nm. In some ways, the GBP25,390 BlueHdi 2.0 is the more desirable of the two, particularly if you have to pretend that you’ve ordered a sensible family car. Its load carrying ability is astonishing and even with a heavy load on board and all that energy being sent through only the front tyres, the dynamics remain first rate.
Even at 70mph on A roads, the 2.0-litre diesel’s pistons are reciprocating at a mere 1,800 turns every minute.
With the 150hp diesel, until the driver learns that sixth gear is best suited to long, flat roads, it can seem as if the engine is lacking in torque even when you know it most certainly isn’t. The best idea is to leave the car in fifth for miles taken off-motorway, as even at 70mph on A roads, the 2.0-litre diesel’s pistons are reciprocating at a mere 1,800 turns every minute.
Golf GTI or 308 GTi?
The ride of the GTi can be a touch too firm on occasion yet other than that, there is nothing really negative which can be said about how it handles and grips. As good as a Golf GTI? It’s very close and more’s the pity that Peugeot hasn’t (yet?) fitted the new 180hp 2.0 BlueHDi to a 308 ‘GTD’ with which to attack the Golf GTD. That engine with the 308 GTi’s looks would be a cracking car.
The future – should Peugeot evolve the next 308 into a 408?
It’s not hard to guess what PSA may well be planning now that it has three large volume brands in Europe. A logical move would be to turn the next Opel-Vauxhall Astra into a model which is the same size as the highly successful Škoda Octavia. That has to be worth a try if transforming the ex-GM brands into ones which return high margins is what Groupe PSA wants for its newly adopted identical twins.
A one-off factor was the diesel cheating scandal hitting Audi’s profits but in recent times, Škoda has delivered better RoI than the Volkswagen Group’s largest mass-premium brand, we mustn’t forget. It must astonish and delight the bosses in Mladá Boleslav and Wolfsburg that no Europe-based OEM has yet properly gone after the same customers who happily pay ever higher prices for Škodas. This is a big part of the European market that only Kia seems to be targeting without drawing attention to the fact.
If PSA decides to reinvent one of its mainstream divisions into a ‘Simply Clever’ brand, it’s probably going to be Peugeot.
Looking at the many, many product planning decisions made over a decade or more, the Peugeot family seem to prefer that any brand apart from Citroën is given the chance to become a high-margin one. The RCZ and 508 RXH were good cars which were ignored by buyers, while Citroën’s too long ago history of innovative designs was grafted onto DS and the results there have been sadly plain to see, with sales plunging across Europe and in China. The company says wait for the DS 7, but can one vehicle save this brand?
All of this is probably why, if PSA decides that it’s time to properly reinvent one of its mainstream divisions into an alternative ‘Simply Clever’ brand, it’s probably going to be Peugeot, when really, either Citroën or Opel (and Vauxhall, if it survives) would be a better fit.
In the search for big sales volume and a matching margin, those in charge at Groupe PSA could start trying to shift Peugeots into vehicle size classes which give people more metal for their money. Which is how today’s 308 might either become tomorrow’s 408 and not solely in China, where such a car already exists (it’s a sedan version of the 308). Why not turn the 308’s replacement into a direct rival for the Octavia? If PSA doesn’t try this idea, then surely Renault, or another rival will.
