Peugeot 208 - long-term review

The 208’s 1.2-litre tri-pot engine is averaging 41mpg. I’d hoped for a smidge more, with that eight-speed auto constantly shuffling me into fuel-sipping top gear. And I think the culprit, oddly, might be the touchscreen, rather than my right foot.

But because the Pug’s AC-off toggle involves messing about with the touchscreen, I tend not to bother and leave it merrily chuffing away at a constant 21.5 degrees. If there was a button, it’d be cancelled more often than Piers Morgan and I reckon I’d be closer to the 47mpg I averaged in my old 4cyl turbo Suzuki Swift Sport, even when I had to shift my own gears with ye olde-fashioned lever.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I was taught to always switch off the air-con when the cabin doesn’t need cooling or de-misting. Even modern AC is a drain on the engine’s efforts, and the old adage that it nicks 10 per cent of your fuel economy sticks in my head for evermore. Particularly while it's autumn here in the UK, the car's heater isn't even having to work that hard. Add to that I've recently moved house and, for the first time in my life, I have the holy grail of car folk property wish-lists: a garage.

No more scraping frost or bird muck off my car, thanks very much. And while the garage isn't heated - who do you think I am, Jay Leno? - storing the 208 indoors ought to keep the worst of the winter chills out of it. So, it'll be interesting to see how the numbers change as winter sets in.

As the weather closes in, I'm also hoping to get my head around the automatic wipers, which like several Peugeots and Citroens that've graced the TG Garage over the past few years, have a mind of their own. They'll stay firmly retracted as the heavens open, and once I've prompted them with the ol' turn the auto function off and on again, they go absolutely crackers, flailing up and down like a hummingbird's wings even after the sun breaks back through the clouds. As a result, I've binned off the auto wiper function, and just turn them off and on again by hand. Because, as with an AC switch, the old ways are sometimes the best.