NEW PEUGEOT DOES IT BETTER Somehow I never quite got to grips with the Peugeot 307. It might have been international car of the year in 2002, a title it stole from under the nose of the revived BMW Mini, but it did very little for me. After the previous 306 it seemed to lack a little something, mainly appeal. But perhaps I’m the one who is out of step because Peugeot managed to sell three million of the things, thankfully across the world rather than all here in Britain. One of the things the 307 brought to Peugeot was high rise body architecture to give the car greater internal space without increasing its footprint, the amount of road space it occupies. Such efficiency is the name of the game these days so it’s hardly surprising that the new 308, launched in September to replace the 307, follows the same format. It just does it rather better. You may actually be confused by the 308’s arrival because we had a Peugeot 309 years ago and it was made right here in Britain. But when that died in the early 90s it was replaced by the 306 and I’ve never managed since to work out quite what Peugeot was up to. In September, Peugeot only gave us five door versions of the 308, which, incidentally, was styled in-house. Now there are three doors, too, and I hope Peugeot will take this opportunity to bring us some rip roaring sporty versions, just as they have in the past. When it launched the 309 GTi the car went largely unnoticed because everyone was focused on the 205 GTi. But the 309 was actually the better car. It’s that it looked clumsy, a bit like a sumo wrestler trying synchronised swimming. You just know it’s never going to work. Back to the 308 five door, though, and, more accurately, the 2.0 HDi turbodiesel we’ve been driving in SE trim. You may want to sit down as you read this, but Peugeot asks more than £18,000 for this car. It gets worse, because there were options on top that stuck another £3,000 or so on the bill. That’s BMW 3 Series money for a cooking Peugeot hatchback. Someone at Peugeot believes their new car is capable of an awful lot. To be fair, you can pay a lot less for a 308 – and if I was buying one, I would. There’s no way I would entertain parting with £21,000 for this car, or probably any car come to that unless it was very special. The test car’s engine was capable of pumping out a healthy 136 bhp and gave 240 lb ft of torque, which is enough to give it brisk performance through the gears. The car will rush ahead to a top speed of 129 mph, at which speed the gendarmes will grab the car back to help boost the national economy just one more time should you try it in France. From 0-62 mph takes 10.2 seconds and, let’s face it, that’s pretty near quick enough for most of us. Anyone who gets away more smartly will probably only be waiting for you to play catch up at the next set of traffic lights. Keeping it on the pace too much is likely to hit the fuel consumption quite hard, even with the assistance of the test car’s six speed manual gearbox. Peugeot promises some good figures with 51.3 mpg on the combined cycle but our car only saw 47 mpg. As it’s a Peugeot, and they are normally so frugal, I would have put good money on getting more than 50 mpg. Just as well I didn’t, as I needed it to fill the car up again. The whole point of cars like the 308 is that they need to be family friendly. This one is as it has plenty of space front and rear and seats that are as good as a favourite club chair. There’s also decent legroom in the rear and masses of headroom thanks to the high roofline. Even the boot is of a decent size so most families will find this car fits the bill. I’d probably save cash by having a lesser power output and more pauper style trim but this one’s certainly worth a second look. Maurice Hardy Strong performance in crash tests is a big requirement these days so you’ll hardly be surprised to read that the Peugeot 308 scored five stars in its EuroNCAP crash test for front and side impact. It got four stars for child protection, too, but pedestrians won’t be quite as keen as a three star rating was all it got for protecting them. Still, that’s better than virtually every other car. As him indoors was getting over an ankle operation while we had the 308 it was down to me to do most of the driving and luckily it was an enjoyable task. This Peugeot is a fairly compact design despite its interior space, which clearly demonstrates how well the modern trend for tall designs works. We did a fair few miles in the 308 and it is really memorable for its lively engine although the gearbox was not as slick as I would have liked. The interior is also an appealing place to be, all the more so on the SE because it has Peugeot’s glass roof. The other half of the team doesn’t rate glass roofs but I love the light they flood into the car. Annette Hardy Car: Peugeot 308 SE 5dr HDi 136 Does it fit your ego?... 0-62 mph: 10.2 secs Top speed: 129 mph Bhp: 136 @ 4000 rpm Torque: 240 lb ft @ 2000 rpm ...and your wallet?... Price: £18,145 Urban: 39.2 mpg Extra urban: 62.7 mpg Combined: 51.3 mpg CO2 emissions: 146 g/km Insurance Group: 11 / 22 Best bits: roomy body; willing engine; family friendly. End