Peugeot 5008 long-term test
The Peugeot 5008 stands out not just for being great to drive, but also to be in, thanks to its desirable and striking styling...
- The car Peugeot 5008 Puretech 130 Allure
- Run by Jim Holder, editorial director
- Why it’s here To discover if real life can find any holes in the armoury of our favourite seven-seat SUV
- Needs to Make family life easy with a touch of flair and deliver low running costs across the board
Price £28,780 Price as tested £29,885 Miles covered 3532 Official fuel economy 54.3mpg Test economy 33.1mpg Options Metallic paint (£525), Black Diamond roof (£280), 19in alloy wheels (£300)
17 October – The inside story
“How are you getting on with the 5008?” one of our car testers asked me the other day, anxious that it was living up to its Car of the Year category victory.
Without hesitation, I declared that, “I like it so much that I actually miss it when someone else has taken in and I have to use something else.”
It was an answer that surprised even me; after all, you aren’t meant to miss a car, let alone a mainstream seven-seat SUV. But Peugeot has hit on something that makes its cars - and especially this one - that little bit more lovely than those of its rivals.
Much of that is down to positives struck upon by Peugeot’s design team. While what constitutes good and bad design is always a debatable subject, there’s no question in my mind that the 5008 is both desirable and striking, pulling off its metamorphosis from MPV to large SUV with aplomb, and using details such as the headlamp shapes to really stand out.
Inside, those good looks continue, but add a feel-good factor into the equation. There’s a mix of materials, from grey cloth to hard plastics, that offer variety to the look and feel. There’s the patterned seats, which again add character. And the driving position is good, so long as you can adjust to the oddly small steering wheel (which, frankly, you do in time) and boosted by the characterful toggle switches and large, modern touchscreen.
It’s true that some of the panel gaps and alignment across the dash would send VW engineers into a tailspin, and there’s no question that Peugeot needs to work harder on these details, but overall I’m forgiving, because the Peugeot 5008 is such a nice car to be in.
No doubt, some of my reaction is a consequence of stepping from a Skoda Kodiaq, a car which I thought was exceptional, but which went about hitting every expectation in such a solid, rational way, that it left me relatively cold. The same, of course, might be said of that car’s VW and Seat stablemates, and again I have to celebrate the fact that Peugeot appears to have found the confidence to go its own way and offer buyers an alternative approach.
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