Peugeot 408 review

The elephant in the car with all Peugeots these days is the steering and control concept. You get a flat-topped steering wheel and high-mounted instruments that you look at over the wheel rather than through it.

Some people like it, some hate it – opinion is divided on the TG team, but provided you sit upright and adjust the steering column downward like a sensible person, the dials are in clear view and you don't have to drop your sightline very far.

If you tend to sit reclined or are shortish and keep the seat base low, your eyes won't be able to peer over the wheel rim and the dials will be more or less cut off. The whole idea also depends on a small steering wheel, which makes the steering feel direct, because Peugeot hasn't installed a low-geared steering rack to compensate.

So does the 408 handle well? 

The small wheel means that small movements of the rim give you a rapid turning effect, making the car feel agile into turns. The hybrid version of the car seems to have more roll, so you get a bit of lean through the corner.

You need to calibrate your movements, and feed in initial lock gently, so the roll angles build gradually. Once into the corner, it's grippy and keen, and resistant to hog-squealing understeer.

And the ride?

It's not soft-riding like a Citroen (and surprisingly different to the C5 X, which is the Citroen version of this same car) but the springing and damping do let the body breathe, giving it a long-legged and relaxed feeling. Yet there's enough control on big undulations and dips.

Only in really tight bends does the PHEV feel its 1,700kg mass. The petrol version is noticeably lighter and feels firmer in ride, but this is a positive – if you want an overtly comfort oriented car then you’d be better off in the C5 X, but the petrol is surprisingly fun to drive. 

What’s the performance like?

Outright poke is perfectly OK, at least in the 222bhp hybrid. Considering the power advantage it has over the 129bhp pure petrol version though, it’s not a whole order of magnitude quicker. But then it is carrying an extra 300kg over that car. 

The 1.2 petrol feels perkier off the line and offers some of that revvy 3cyl thrum, while the PHEV has the advantage at a motorway cruise when it comes to overtaking. The hybrid doesn’t like it if you mash the throttle – the initial response takes a while, then the car clumsily drops a load of gears and you wait for the performance to filter through to the road. Take it easier and it’s nicely refined.

There are steering wheel paddles to control the transmission's indecision, but they're pretty much a waste of plastic. The override lasts only a couple of seconds before it defaults back to auto, so you can't successfully hold a gear through a sequence of bends. That eight-speed auto set-up is standard across the whole range, the only option.

Is there much difference in efficiency?

Not really – we saw around 45mpg in real world driving in both. You'll probably manage around 20 miles in EV mode in the hybrid around town. As ever, it’s really only worth considering if you can charge at home, it just doesn’t make sense to charge a PHEV on public points.

One final thing to note is the less-than-brilliant visibility. Thick A-pillars and wing mirrors block a chunk of your front view and the rear window is narrow thanks to that stylish coupe-style roofage. Thankfully you do get rear parking sensors and a camera as standard.