It’s been a long time since Peugeot used TV, radio and magazine advertising to crow about the strength of its lion-like models, but those of us who can remember when it did might well see a parallel between its relative commercial tidings of the late 1980s and early 1990s and today.
This company is incrementally shifting itself closer towards pseudo-premium brand territory by launching ever more chiselled-looking cars with inviting, materially appealing interiors, powered by modern engines that keep them relevant.
In the UK and elsewhere, it has reclaimed much of the market share that it lost to the German brands through the mid-2000s. However, in using compact SUVs and electric offerings to fuel so much of its rise, it has yet to really rejuvenate the spirit that brought us those great-handling hatchbacks and saloons of the 1980s: cars like the 205, 405, 406, 309 and 306.
This week, we find out if the company’s all-new mid-sized hatchback, the Peugeot 308, can bring a clearer dynamic flavour of the old Peugeot back. This is the second time that the firm has recycled the 308 model nomenclature for its VW Golf-segment entrant, and it has also recycled and overhauled the old version’s vehicle architecture, while honouring the 308’s relatively diminutive proportions within a class where much larger cars are now more and more common.