Peugeot e-308 SW review

If you’ve not been inside a Peugeot for a while you’ll be surprised at the swankiness on display inside the e-308 SW: the company has made a concerted effort with its latest generation of cars to boost the perceived luxury and create a subtly stylish environment that resists the sort of wackiness that, say, Citroen might go in for.

Why does the dash look funny?

That’ll be the 3D-effect digital instrument panel in the top-spec car. It sounds silly, but actually works quite nicely, using layers in the display to create an innovative look.

In either trim you’ve got a selection of dashboard styles to choose from, with some interesting takes on how to display the information the driver needs. You’ve got to applaud Peugeot for taking a different approach to these things when so many rivals have replaced the analogue dials with digital screens only to replicate analogue dials worse. 

What’s the rest of the tech like? 

Everything else works well enough: we do like the blend of physical buttons and smart ‘i-Toggle’ touchscreen strip above. On the latter you get five configurable shortcuts selectable from the main screen, so you can hop to the Apple CarPlay screen, a favourite radio station or the satnav (etc) with a single press. 

This setup still needs a bit of messing around with touchscreen menus, but it’s a more elegant way of minimising interior buttons than most of the firm’s rivals have come up with so far.

One caveat is that on our test car the infotainment and digital dashboard did play up a couple of times, including going completely blank: the driving was unaffected, but would it get you out of an inadvertent speeding ticket if you didn’t know how fast you were going? At any rate, it would have been something we’d see the dealer about if we’d had the car for longer.

Is it practical?

There’s decent space for four adults inside the e-308 SW, but that long sloping roof might impact on headroom for taller rear passengers. Up front the car is spacious, with some decent storage and cubbies around the cabin.

In the boot you’ve got 548 litres of space with the seats up, which extends to 1,574 litres with them tipped down. That’s 60 litres less space than the combustion version of the 308 in either configuration, but the same as the PHEV thanks to the space that’s been sacrificed to squeeze battery in.