Peugeot’s head-turner

WhAT a handsome beast! Sitting in my driveway or out on the road, the sleek new Peugeot 308 SW estate attracts admiring glances. rightly so. in design terms, it’s right up there with more expensive premium players such as Audi. And you’ve a choice of three main powertrains: petrol, diesel or petrol-electric hybrid.

i’ve been driving a new 308 SW 130 Auto PureTech petrol version in Allure Premium trim and a fetching exterior shade called Avatar Blue.

it came generously stocked with comfort and safety features — on top of the hightech cockpit and dashboard, and with sumptuous soft-touch fabrics and a compact multi- function steering wheel — with an on-theroad price of £29,330; rising to £30,295 with extras that included a heated front windscreen (£200), a camera and parking system (£500) and lane positioning (£200).

A practical boot-load restraining net (£ 55) proved useful for the cavernous rear,, which increases from 608 litres to 1,634 litres with the back seats down.

Powered by a smooth and relatively frugal 130 hp 1.2 litre petrol engine linked to an eight- speed automatic gearbox, it accelerates from rest to 62 mph in 9.9 seconds up to a top speed of 130 mph, yet still manages up to 52 mpg and CO2 emissions of between 122 g and 147 g/ km. There are three driving modes: normal, sport and eco.

The 308 SW estate is also available in two greener plugin hybrid powertrains in hybrid 180 or hybrid 225 variants which combine a 1.6-litre fourcylinder petrol engine and a 12.4 kWh battery connected to an 81 kW electric motor.

As well as saving fuel when in hybrid-mode, it also allows up to 37 miles of zero- emissions driving in pure electric mode.

A full charge using a standard domestic wall- box charger takes about 3 hrs 50 mins, while the optional 7.4 kW charger reduces this to 1 hr 55 mins. There is also the option of a 1.5-litre BluehDi diesel engine.

The 308 SW estate range starts from £26,580, with plugin hybrids from £33,670.