BY BRIAN BYRNE
A COUPÉ style is all about that: style.
A sloping rear roofline in practical terms can be limiting for rear passengers. Then again, owners who want a coupe probably don’t rely on it for full family transport. That said, the larger four-door coupes in Europe over recent decades generally offer reasonable rear room, they being long enough for the fastback slope to cover the boot rather than the passenger area.
The Peugeot 508 bravely bucks the crossover-SUV trend. It offers a sense of upmarket and old-world grand tour, and is quite beautiful. Good aesthetic in the proportions. Sized and detailed for presence, especially with the revised front introduced in 2023 to bring the car fully into the current family look. That change also very much sharpens the overall style of this second generation in its mid-life. In the navy of my review car the 508 had a restrained look that subtly adds an extra layer of perceived quality. The rear three-quarter view shows a modern classic in the format, with a short high bootlid deck indicating a very practical boot capacity.
Inside, there’s a lot going on in the styling of the dashboard and instrumentation, visually geared towards the driver. The driving instruments are placed high to be viewed above the steering wheel, in Peugeot’s now familiar i-Cockpit design. There’s a selection of instruments styling available, my own preference being the simple analogue look. The infotainment screen is set low, which I quite like as it doesn’t interfere with windscreen view as in some other cars. There’s a decent mix of piano switches and digital buttons for key functions. A hefty centre console divides the seats for the front occupants, adding to the sense of old-style sportiness. The flick-switch transmission selector and drive mode are tidily fitted there, while the remote controls on the steering wheel are straightforward and minimal.
The seating support and comfort proved very good, equally so for the couple who would ride in the back as for those in the front. For the driver, though there’s a lot of glass in the rear window, the fastback slope reduced actual visibility through it, but the side mirrors are big and have a wide view angle. That boot capacity I mentioned is excellent at 487L.
With the mid-life revision, Peugeot added a plug-in hybrid petrol to the powertrain options, with a choice from three outputs 180hp/225hp/360hp. There’s also a 1.2 petrol with 130hp, and the 130hp 1.5 diesel that powered my review car. All have an 8-speed automatic transmission. The diesel option has become unusual in Ireland today, but even with a relatively lazy drive it proved to be a very pleasant motor indeed. Quiet and refined too. And phenomenally frugal, coming with a range of close to 1,000km on a tankful, sipping at less than 4L/100km a lot of the time. For anyone who needs to travel high mileage in style, and comfort, there won’t be many stops to refuel.
Needless to say, the usual suite of driver assist systems are standard. In this 2023-registered press car, not yet as intrusive as they are becoming elsewhere.
My final thought, given that most of the competition for a four-door midsized coupe is offered by premium brands from Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW, this is a car quite well able to compete with these in most metrics, and at a price that is much more accessible.
*****
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