Peugeot 5008 long-term test

• 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 5232 Official fuel economy 54.3mpg Test economy 36.3mpg Options Metallic paint (£525), Black Diamond roof (£280), 19in alloy wheels (£300)

28 January – Flawed brilliance? 

Maybe I’m jinxed, but for the second time in under a year a relatively new car has let me down just as I’ve started to sing its praises.

Little more than minutes after I took to social media to declare the Peugeot 5008 the finest family car I’ve ever had the privilege to have extended use of, the boss between the steering wheel and steering column developed a loud squeak. It’s at its worst when you make turn after turn; for instance, in a car park. At first it was amusing – it sounds a bit like an excited mouse celebrating discovering a particularly large bit of cheese – but now it is very irritating.

And this is on, let me remind you, a car that is just six months and 7000 miles old. It’s had nothing more than slightly more than average use and, with the first service still some way down the calendar, I’m caught between attempting a quick spray of WD40 and hoping for the best or booking it in for a time-consuming check-up under warranty.

It could be worse, of course, as I know only too well, having been left stranded in my previous car, a Skoda Kodiaq, when a battery fault, possibly linked to an alternator fault, left me repeatedly stranded. Again, that was substantially less than a year into ownership. It was fixed efficiently and I concluded then that the customer experience was such that I would hold no long-term grudges, but should manufacturers really need forgiveness so soon?

I’m left in a quandary on that one. If my washing machine packed up and someone was dispatched to fix it under warranty I’d probably move on quickly, grateful for the cover and forgiving for the time I’d lost waiting while the work was done.

But, for reasons I need to spend more time contemplating my inner psyche for, I’m far less forgiving of car makers. I guess a lot of it comes down to the higher cost of the product and the greater relationship I have with it (having spent weeks speccing it) and the seller (having bought into the dream that the salesmen put before me).

A quick and effective fix will no doubt settle my inner calm. It is, after all, a minor issue. However, it’s also a great shame that I’m now likely to caveat every effusive, heartfelt recommendation to buy a Peugeot 5008 with a cautionary tale.

For all the latest reviews, advice and new car deals, sign up to the What Car? newsletter here

Read more on our long-term Peugeot 5008 >

Read more long-term tests >