The 3008 Hybrid 225 plays the comfortable, classically loping Peugeot family car quite effectively at relaxed everyday speeds. On 18in wheels its ride can be slightly abrupt over sharper edges, but it’s generally pretty compliant and well-isolated, and the suspension deals with bigger inputs at urban speeds without throwing the cabin around too much.
That’s more than can be said of the top-of-the-line Hybrid4 300, wider test experience of which suggests it sacrifices quite a lot on rolling comfort in pursuit of a very marginal improvement on handling dynamism.
The lesser hybrid handles well enough, though. It’s secure and stable at ordinary motorway- and gentler cross-country speeds, and it’s reasonably wieldy around town - although the idea that a smaller steering wheel contributes to the car’s agility is very questionable. Small though that rim may be, the 3008’s steering wheel feeds onto a rack that’s only medium-paced; it has three full turns between locks, where 2.5- to 2.8-turns is becoming more typical of modern passenger cars. That means you do just as much with your wrists here when you’re negotiating a typical roundabout or junction as you would in any rival; you just do more ‘steering’ around a slightly smaller orbit. Feel is slightly woolly and over-assisted, though it doesn’t make the car too hard to place.
