Peugeot 108 TOP Convertible review

Name: Peugeot 108 TOP Convertible
Brand: Peugeot

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The Peugeot 108 TOP is one of the smallest and cheapest convertibles on sale but there’s very little space in the back seats and it’s not particularly comfortable to drive

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wowscore

6/10

This score is awarded by our team of after extensive testing of the car

What's good

Economical engine
Funky looks
Decent standard equipment

What's not so good

Cramped back seats
Small boot
Sluggish to drive

Peugeot 108 TOP Convertible: what would you like to read next?

Is the Peugeot 108 TOP Convertible a good car?

The Peugeot 108 TOP is a soft-top version of the compact 108 city car that comes with a partial fabric roof. Just like the hard-top 108, it shares many components with the Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo, but – in addition to a folding roof – it comes with front and rear doors as standard.

Besides its folding fabric roof, the Peugeot 108 TOP interior looks identical to the standard 108. You get an equally minimalist cabin with only the bare minimum of buttons for the heating and ventilation and top-spec cars get equally eye-catching striped seats. Unlike the standard 108, the Peugeot 108 TOP comes with a seven-inch touchscreen with smartphone mirroring as standard.

Also fitted across the range is a height-adjustable drivers’ seat to help you find your ideal seating position. There’s enough head and legroom for you to get comfortable if you’re over six-feet tall, too, but rear-seat passenger space is far from impressive. Sure, you get front and rear doors as standard, but there’s less head and legroom in the two back seats than you get in the likes of the VW Up and the Skoda Citigo.

Having a folding roof doesn’t affect the Peugeot 108 TOP’s practicality, but it still can’t carry a great deal in the boot. There’s space for a pair of small suitcases, but that’s pretty much it. You can fold the two back seats down to carry more, but a bike won’t fit unless you remove its wheels.

Chances are, though, you won’t be considering a compact convertible because you want to carry lots of luggage. You’ll be more interested in cruising along with the top down. Unfortunately, while the Peugeot 108 TOP is a doddle to drive, it isn’t particularly comfortable. It’s noisier than the standard car at speed, too, and its 1.0-litre petrol engine is sedate to say the least.

The Peugeot 108 TOP isn’t what some would call a ‘true’ convertible, but its folding fabric roof still lets you enjoy the wind in your hair

Mat Watson

carwow expert

Accelerating from 0-62mph takes more than 13 seconds, and versions fitted with the optional automatic gearbox take even longer. That said, at least it’s cheap to run. With a gentle touch on the accelerator, you should be able to manage more than 50mpg in normal driving conditions.

The Peugeot 108 TOP is very easy to manoeuvre around town. You don’t get parking sensors or a reversing camera as standard but the Peugeot 108 TOP’s small size and light steering mean it’s dead easy to park and the relatively large windows make it easy to spot your way through tight gaps in traffic.

Unfortunately, some key safety kit that helps prevent avoidable accidents – such as automatic emergency braking – costs extra across the Peugeot 108 TOP range. But, if you’re looking for an affordable soft top that’s cheap to buy and cheap to run, it’s certainly worth a closer look.

How practical is it?

The Peugeot 108 TOP comes with front and rear doors as standard, but the tight back seats and small boot mean it isn’t particularly practical

You can carry two people in the back seats, but they probably won’t thank you for it – they’re pretty cramped, especially for tall adults

Mat Watson

carwow expert

Dimensions

Boot (seats up)

196 litres

Boot (seats down)

780 litres

Passenger space

There’s plenty of space in the Peugeot 108 TOP’s front seats for you to get comfortable – even if you’re six-feet tall. The standard height-adjustable driver’s seat will help make sure you get a good view out – even if you’re quite small – and you can adjust the height of the steering wheel to give you an unobstructed view of the speedo.

Just like the VW Up, you only get two seats in the back of the Peugeot 108 TOP. There’s plenty of space for two kids to get comfy, but adults will find headroom and legroom much tighter than in the VW. At least you get front and rear doors as standard, though, so you don’t have to climb out to let you passengers jump in the back.

You get two pairs of Isofix anchor points in the back for fitting child seats, but the anchor points themselves are buried deep within the seat padding so they aren’t very easy to locate. At least the standard rear doors make it relatively easy to lift in a seat, and you don’t have to stoop down much to strap in a child, either.

Storage space

The Peugeot 108 TOP’s front door bins are large enough to hold a one-litre bottle, and you get two extra cup holders on the centre console. The glovebox isn’t particularly generous, however, but then few small cars have particularly capacious storage bins inside.

The rear doors come with similar-size bins to those in the front, but because the Peugeot 108 TOP only has two back seats, you don’t get a folding rear armrest. You do, however, get a single cupholder between the front seats for your passengers in the back to share.

Boot space

The Peugeot 108 TOP’s 196-litre boot is quite cramped – even by small-car standard. There’s just enough space for two small suitcases, but the likes of the VW Up, Skoda Citigo and SEAT Mii can all carry a few extra bags. That said, it’s no smaller than the boot you get in the standard 108.

The Peugeot 108 TOP’s narrow boot opening doesn’t make it very easy to lift in objects and the raised boot lip means you’ll have to hoist heavy items up quite high when you’re packing it with luggage. You can’t get it with an adjustable boot floor and there aren’t any particularly clever shopping hooks or tether points, either.

The back seats fold down in a two-way split as standard so you can carry some long luggage and a back-seat passenger at once. Flip both rear seats down and the Peugeot 108 TOP’s boot grows to 780 litres – that’s almost 180 litres less than you get in a VW Up, but no smaller than in the standard hardtop 108.

You’ll still have to remove a bike’s wheels before it’ll fit, however, and there’s a significant step up behind the back seats that makes it tricky to push heavy luggage right up behind the front seats.

What's it like to drive?

The dinky Peugeot 180 TOP is easy to drive and perfectly at home in the city. The rather sluggish petrol engine means it feels out of its depth on the motorway, however

There aren’t many things out there that accelerate slower than a 108 TOP with an automatic gearbox – reaching 62mph from rest takes a mighty 15.2 seconds

Mat Watson

carwow expert

Performance and Economy

Every Peugeot 108 TOP comes with a 1.0-litre petrol engine. This 72hp unit drives the front wheels and will accelerate this compact soft-top from 0-62mph in a far-from-spritely 13.8 seconds. That’s very slightly faster than a comparable 75hp VW Up, but unlike the Up, you can’t upgrade the 108 with a more powerful engine. As a result, it feels very sluggish indeed, especially with three passengers on board.

In terms of fuel economy, Peugeot claims the 108 TOP returns 68.9mpg. In normal driving conditions, however, you can expect to see it manage a figure in the mid-fifties.

You get a five-speed manual gearbox as standard but you can upgrade to a five-speed automatic if you’d rather not change gear yourself. It’s not particularly responsive, however, and makes the 108 TOP slower and thirstier. Automatic versions take a very leisurely 15.2 seconds to reach 62mph from rest and return a smidge less fuel economy than the standard manual model.

Driving

The Peugeot 108 TOP is just as easy to drive as the standard 108, but it doesn’t do a particularly good job of ironing out potholes. Even with the roof closed it’s noisier at speed than the standard hardtop model and it’s significantly less relaxing to drive than the likes of the VW Up.

This isn’t a car you’ll be wanting to take on long motorway journeys very often – more likely, you’ll be pottering around town with the roof down. The Peugeot 108 TOP’s small size and light steering make nipping through traffic a breeze but it does tend to lean a little more than the VW Up in tight corners.

The Peugeot 108 TOP’s large windows give you a good view out and its small size makes it easy to park. You can even get it with a reversing camera to help you stop a hair’s breadth from the car behind.

The Peugeot 108 – on which the 108 TOP convertible is based – earned a fair four-star safety rating from Euro NCAP. The tests have been made much stricter since it was tested back in 2014, however.

As a result, you’ll want to pay extra for some of the 108 TOP’s optional safety kit – including automatic emergency braking. This feature – that’ll hit the brakes automatically if the car detects an obstacle in the road ahead – also comes with traffic sign recognition and lane departure warning.

What's it like inside?

The Peugeot 108 TOP’s cabin can be had with lots of eye-catching trims, but the numerous hard, brittle plastics mean it doesn’t feel particularly upmarket

Next Read full interior review