“It’s just okay” – Mat Watson reviews the Peugeot 408

The Peugeot 408 has always been a strange thing. It’s part hatchback and part SUV, with a dash of coupe thrown in – and now there’s a new version.

It may look a lot like the old car, but Peugeot has made some key upgrades to the 408 including refreshed styling, new engines and a tweaked interior. I’ve spent a week with the car to find out if it’s still worth buying.

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New Peugeot 408: design changes

When you look closely, there are some subtle changes to the new 408’s design. Starting up front.

The grille is new, as are the headlights. You used to get a long “fang” LED light signature running down into the lower bumper, but Peugeot has done away with this in favour of a triple “claw” design.

Not much has changed down the side, apart from the fact you now get 19-inch alloy wheels as standard across the range, and at the rear you get the word Peugeot spelled out across the tailgate in place of the old shield logo.

One thing which hasn’t changed is the massive black plastic rear bumper, and it’s the one design feature I never really liked on the 408. It looks like a baboon’s protruding bottom, and it scratches pretty easily when you’re dragging things in and out of the boot.

New Peugeot 408: interior and infotainment

Peugeot hasn’t made many changes to the 408’s cabin, and that’s a bit of a shame because I don’t like it as much as its latest interiors.

It looks great in photographs, but once you’re sitting in the car it feels a bit like a child’s toy. All the angles and shapes on the dashboard look a bit tacky, but at least it’s nicely screwed together and the materials look posh.

I also like the shortcut panels beneath the infotainment screen. You can customise them to show your most-used functions, and that’s really handy. Especially when the infotainment system itself is so confusing to navigate – the menus are a real dog’s breakfast and the graphics are dark.

This interior looked great when it first came out, but now it’s living in the shadow of newer Peugeots like the 3008.

New Peugeot 408: space and practicality

For a sleek and swoopy car like this, the 408 is surprisingly practical. There’s loads of storage up front, with a decent-sized glovebox and a massive storage area under the central armrest.

The driving position is interesting. You have a tiny steering wheel with the dials set above it, and it’s a setup which doesn’t work for everyone. I like it, but taller people may struggle with kneeroom.

Moving to the rear seats, I found there was plenty of legroom but headroom was limited thanks to the sloping roofline. At least there’s enough shoulder space for three people, and fitting a child seat is pretty straight-forward once you’ve undone the fiddly ISOFIX zips.

You get a 508-litre boot in the 408, which is almost 100 litres more than the Honda Civic but 90 litres down on the Skoda Octavia. I managed to fit eight carry-on-sized suitcases in the Peugeot, so it’s more than practical enough for families.

New Peugeot 408: engines and driving

There are three power options for the 408. The car I’m driving is the 1.2-litre petrol hybrid with 145hp, and Peugeot says it’ll do 57mpg. I managed 43mpg during my time with the car, which isn’t bad considering I was hooning around country roads to test the handling.

There’s also a plug-in hybrid with 240hp and 50 miles of all-electric range, an good choice for company car drivers looking for the lowest BiK rates, or there’s the electric E-408. That car has a 210hp motor, paired to a 58kWh battery to give you 282 miles of range.

In town, the 408 isn’t quite as easy to drive as a more traditional SUV thanks to the lower driving position and narrow windows. You don’t get a great view out, so you’ll be relying on the surround-view camera system quite a lot.

The suspension is a tad firm as well. It thuds through larger bumps and fidgets around over smaller imperfections – a Skoda Octavia is more comfortable.

Out on a twisty road, I was quite impressed by how fun the 408 was to drive. I like the small steering wheel, it gives the car a more sporty feeling, and it feels pretty agile through the bends. It does get a bit out of shape if you push too hard, with the front of the car starting to run wide, but keep it within its limits and you can have fun.

The 408 isn’t the best motorway car, though. You get quite a lot of road noise at 70mph, which gets tiring quite quickly. The Honda Civic is more refined.

New Peugeot 408: Mat’s final verdict

So then, what’s my final verdict on the Peugeot 408?

Well I think it’s a really good-looking car, but other than that the best way to describe it is “just okay”. I probably wouldn’t recommend it to people, but if you like the styling and find a great deal then I see no issue with buying one.

The thing is though, if you’re after a car like this I think the Skoda Octavia is a better choice because it’s more practical, or you could even save some cash and go for something like a Jaecoo 7 instead. That car is a proper SUV, and it has a nicer interior than the Peugeot.

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