The Peugeot 2008 as a family car

We hired a car in Corsica and ended up with Peugeot 2008 for 5 days. Our 2008 was pretty new with just under 400 miles on the clock.

On first glimpse we were all very impressed.  The kids and I loved the look of the car and it’s mokka metallic lines.  Turns out the shape is called a crossover- combines the compactness and agility of a supermini, with the high driving position and fashionable rugged style of an SUV.  A trend started by the Nissan Juke,  but let me tell you the Peugeot 2008 is a lot prettier and has oodles more space inside (as I confirmed when I looked at the Juke friends of ours had hired recently).

The seating position was really easy to adjust and for me to find the right spot for comfort and visibility.   It was a left-hand drive model and credit to Peugeot all controls were very intuitive for me despite being used to a UK right-hand drive day-to-day.

The only problem I encountered with the driving position were the thick door pillars.  They were a nuisance around the windy mountain roads, creating blind spots as I went around tight bends.

The large built in nav and info station, on the other hand, was very useful in exploring the island of Corsica.  It didn’t take long for me to figure out I could change the language to English, including the guy giving directions.  No need to learn French then. 🙂

Parking the Peugeot was very easy.  The combination of seating position, size and manoeuvrability  of the car and parking sensors meant I could park in Corte on the narrow streets with such a tight squeeze that we couldn’t walk between us and the cars in front and behind.  I impressed myself even.

We were with 4 of us- me and the 3 kids.  Angelina sat in the front on a booster seat and Hugo and Max in the back.  Max was in his Kiddy carseat.  Legroom at the back was good, but Max did have his mucky feet on the back of my seat quite often.  Thankfully our hire car had leather seats, so all was easy to clean.  I found the seat very comfortable even driving 2-3 hours at a time.

Had there been 5 of us, I think we’d have faced the same squabbles from the back as we do in our old Volvo V40, that is the 3 kids being too close and struggling to click in their seatbelts with boosters and carseats.  It would fit 2 carseats and a booster at a big squeeze.

A definite positive of the Peugeot 2008 was the spacious boot: It fit our huge suitcase, a small suitcase and our hand luggage.

The 2008 we hired came with full glass roof.  Sadly we didn’t get to use this, as in the sun it was too hot without the  blinds pulled over.  When the blinds are open though, it does make the interior of the car feel so much more spacious.  However, I would not choose to buy a car with this feature.

We used the air conditioning quite a lot as the temperatures were nearing 35C in the shade, once even hitting 39C.  The climate control was fantastic in the front, but not so good in the back. The air circulated back there, cooled it, but the fan action wasn’t felt.

How does the car drive?  Well, this was one aspect I was extremely impressed with it!

We drove over 600km (400 miles) in the few days we had it.  I drove on windy road, up mountains, down into valleys, on very narrow roads, on crumbly roads, on sand and gravel, in town and bits on motorway too. We put the car to the test!  The only thing we didn’t do was cross a ford or drive on icy, snowy roads.

The Peugeot has switchable traction control system right by the handbrakes.  The kids and I had fun switching between the settings and feeling the difference… and you do feel the difference.  For example, after coming off the sandy and gravely road that lead to the beach I forgot to switch to normal mode on the highway.  The car was a lot more shifty on the road and the kids spotted it on the dashboard lights that we still had it in sand mode. I switched to normal and the car stuck to the road a lot better.  Don’t ask me how or why… but that’s what we felt.

I had a 1.6l petrol car and was pleased with how nippy it was, allowing me to overtake on busy roads.

As I mentioned we had some challenging driving conditions and very few nice, calm 50-55 mph stretches. This did reflect in the fuel consumption of the car which was 6.6l/ 100km or 42.8 mpg for the 400 miles we travelled with it.  I was pleased with this considering I was not driving soft footed.

I’m used to diesels and I would love to try the diesel model and how that tows.

Overall verdict, is that I would consider buying a 2008 and based on the few days do recommend it to other families too.  It looks great inside and out, drives comfortably and has decent fuel economy.

What car do you drive?  Would you recommend it?