What is it?
In a nutshell, this is where Peugeot’s Peugeot 308 C-segment hatchback – its best effort yet at challenging the Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus – meets an all-new range of cleaner, more powerful and more frugal diesels, grouped under the BlueHDi brand name.
If you read newspapers, you’ll already know that turbodiesel engines have been losing their lustre, the decline accompanied by a lot of florid, they’re-killing-our-kids headlines. The truth is, oil burners have always been good news for helping to keep CO2 outputs respectable, but until recently many have given too free a rein to other exhaust pollutants, especially particulates and oxides of nitrogen.
Peugeot, a leader in diesel research from way back, has been fitting exhaust particulate traps on its cars since 2007. Its latest step is to unveil a new diesel family, BlueHDi, which uses a new three-element emission control technology to cut pollutants back to stricter Euro 6 levels that are coming soon. It boosts power and torque into the bargain; the company’s engine men claim it as “the most efficient emission control system on the market”.
A handy way of judging the effectiveness of BlueHDi, is to compare Peugeot’s current 1.6-litre e-HDi-engined 308 (115bhp, 95g/km CO2 and 76.3mpg combined) with the new BlueHDi version (120bhp, 82g/km and 91.1mpg combined), and then factor in the knowledge that the newer one already complies with Euro 6 emissions standards that don’t take effect until January 2016. It’s an impressive step forward.
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An owner speaks
"Seems to us Peugeot is moving steadily through the field towards the front of the pack."
Time to revisit the Top 5 family hatchbacks? I looked at all of the current list and road tested a Golf and a Focus. Even ignoring price the 308 goes straight to the top.
...which is why I think published residual figures are nonsense
nicebiscuit wrote:Take a non
The person that buys the non-premium car, when it is a couple of years old, probably does best financially.
Frightmare Bob
I did this on a year old Citroen c4. 18k car when new bout for just over 10k with added extra warranty
Euro 6