Peugeot 308 2.0 HDi 136 SE Auto 2dr CC review

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Peugeot 308 2.0 HDi 140 SE Auto Road Test

Test date 12 May 2009 Price as tested £24,195

For Convenience of roof, engaging dynamics, detailed design and finish

Against Confined rear seats, leisurely performance, over-firm urban ride

Peugeot has built more than 650,000 coupé-cabriolets, making it by far the most successful manufacturer of the breed with a quarter of the European market. In fact, the original 2000 206 CC nearly didn’t happen at all, because the company was concerned that this complicated, relatively high-cost small car would not sell enough copies to turn a profit.

Happily, the company took the risk. Not that the original 206 and 307 CC were flawless; patchy roof reliability, floppy bodies and compromised packaging undermined their functionality, but not enough to prevent them from gathering a strong following. Peugeot has since worked hard to purge the 207 CC of its predecessor’s shortcomings, and with some success. The question here is whether it has repeated the feat with the new 308 CC.

The range kicks off with the £19,495 1.6 VTi Sport, with 118bhp and a six-speed manual gearbox. But we’re testing the 2.0 HDi – the larger of the two diesels – in automatic form, which means slightly less power (134bhp) than the manual version.