Peugeot 3008 2.0 HDi review

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Peugeot 3008 2.0 HDi FAP 150 Sport Road Test

Test date Thursday, November 05, 2009 Price as tested £21,345

For Smooth, gutsy turbodiesel, surprising agility, useful, well finished cabin

Against Challenging looks, high waistline, unsettled ride

Peugeot may have come quite late to the crossover idea, but the word appears so frequently throughout the publicity material that the new 3008 surely compensates for any time lag.

Here, there are several boundaries being crossed: the 3008 is part SUV, part estate car, part hatchback, part MPV. It’s tall but it lacks four-wheel drive, offering instead (optionally, and not in the test car) a ‘grip control’ system which does clever things with the traction control and ESP on slippery surfaces such as snow, mud or sand.

But that’s hardly the main point. As Nissan has done with the Qashqai, Peugeot seeks to appeal to buyers’ fantasies by offering a taste of SUV without the weight, expense and social opprobrium of the real thing.

In Nissan’s case, so successful was the idea that the company abandoned the idea of a regular hatchback altogether, but Peugeot won’t do that. Instead, the 3008 is midway in length and price between the 308 hatch and the 308 SW estate. Given that the 2.0 HDI Sport version tested here has 148bhp rather than the 308’s 134bhp, it’s looking good value already.