Test drive: Peugeot 3008 HDi 112 Exclusive

If there’s a buzzword in car-world right now it’s probably crossover; a relatively new and increasingly busy segment of the new car market. Other buzzwords include; blimey, isn’t, petrol, expensive; usually used in a sentence together. Other buzzwords could also include; roadworks, drive, me, insane.

You can probably tell I’ve been up the M1 via the M25 recently. Unfortunately, I was driving our great-fun-for-short-runs Alfa Romeo 146 project car on this recent traffic-blighted, economy-dwindling trip, and not a smooth-cruising, frugal-friendly Peugeot 3008 112 HDi. 

Fortunately, we have driven the genre-crossing 3008 over plenty of mix-use-miles, and if you’re looking for a crossover that relaxes, delivers those crossover attributes and turns its nose up at gas stations, read on through our TotallyMotor road test review of Peugeot’s 3008 HDi 112. 



First impressions:
First impressions are based on expectations, so what do we expect from a crossover?

Height. A crossover would like to mix SUV or 4x4 height and driving position with nimble, saloon-style handling and cornering composure. But ‘handling’ and ‘composure’ aren’t words you’d generally associate with these ‘tall cars’, riding high on extra suspension. 

Space. Throw some spacious estate car space and practicality into the crossover recipe to help haul the family and a big boot-full - the taller and wider a car, the more you can cram into it. Estate cars are a bit Sloane Ranger; crossovers are urban and now.

Chunk. A crossover is preferred to look and feel solid and, in some four-wheel drive-equipped cars; handle a little rough stuff. However, the vast majority of crossover drivers are unlikely to use ‘Mountain Ascent’ mode, even if it is installed - scaling summits just isn’t great for the paintwork.

So, does the Peugeot 3008 deliver on our first impression expectations? It certainly looks big and imposing with its high waistline, short glasshouse area and faux bash-plates, all lending a feeling of solidity. The 3008 looks like it could seat seven, but actually has five well-spaced seats inside. 

Space-wise, the 3008 is definitely where it should be in this class of car and stacks up well against the competition on first inspection. We’ll move some seats around later on. The raked-back and deep windscreen also fills the cabin with light.

And yes, I’d say she’s chunky. Again, the higher shoulders add solidity, as do the flat-ended wheel arches. But do those high shoulders and short glass make an impact on visibility? And while I wouldn’t say the 3008 is traditionally pretty; that look of solid stature would certainly reassure the family man when he’s filling it up with kids.



Into the interior: 
The driver’s door has some weight to it and there’s a slight step up into that higher driving position, but once landed, the driver’s spot benefits from a high view, and airy feel, courtesy of that deep windscreen and sprawling dashboard. 

Our TotallyMotor test car’s trim level is one step away from the top of the trim tree at Exclusive; a 3008 that will cost you £21,595 with this HDi 112 diesel engine; option-free. 

Petrol engine’d variants are a little cheaper, but we’re looking to maximise the mpg here folks, and while Peugeot’s turbocharged petrol engines punch above their small-cc weight in terms of performance – the cracking THP 156, for example - a diesel engine just seems the right choice in a family-centred crossover. 

We’ve also got leather seats here - a £1,050 option on top of cloth - and while the multi-adjustment found this tall-tester a comfortable seating spot, is it over a thousand pounds well spent? Saying that the quality of stitching and general appointment of the seats, soft interior trims and all-round fit and finish felt very good, especially at this price-point. 

But yes, the passenger behind a tall driver will find their space encroached and those high shoulders can impede on the view of object close to the 3008. However, average-height families should fit snuggly, and a fine-tune of safety-looks before manoeuvres mostly deals with those sighting shortcomings. 

Left elbows are well looked after by the deep and high centre console which, with the tall shoulder line, comes together to lend a feeling of interior cocooning, further enhanced by the 3008’s decent general sound insulation. So, after a bit of sliding and tweaking I found a good level of comfort in this test car, and there was a pleasant ‘thunk’ as I pulled the door closed behind me. 

I was less convinced by the electric handbrake, however. While this small switch very cleanly replaces a large traditional handbrake handle and neatly collaborates with the roll-back-avoiding hill-starting feature, it took me a good while to get used to it. In most situations it all works fine with automatic application, but on the odd occasion when the 3008 stalled I found myself searching for that instinctive brake-holding handle that wasn’t there. 

Boot space is wide, accessible and deep, and with the flick of a few switches there’s a good slab of load-carrying space to use – the 3008 swallowed my new, extra-large office chair with ease – and an average family shouldn’t struggle for room inside, with swappable seating and loading, and much clever cubbying dotted around the cabin. If you’ve always got a full compliment of kids and their associated clutter onboard, you should definitely poke your head inside this crossover for a look around. 



The drive:
The 1.6-litre, turbo-diesel engine makes 112bhp and 210ft lb of torque which works well enough in most situations, although I did notice at times what felt like a lack in very-bottom-end pulling power. 

While the engine picks up reasonable pace when the turbo is making boost, on junction pull-away I was sometimes caught out by a power flat spot. I dealt with this by loading on some extra revs as the clutch began to bite to spin the turbo and make more torque. There is enough surge to attack a motorway slip road with some gusto, ensuring that the 3008 joins the rest of the traffic at the right speed; just make sure you’re on the bhp-boil.

In all other conditions the engine worked well with the 6-speed gearbox, and it has to be said that the 3008 is a piece of peaceful cake to drive – just roll along on a gentle wave of turbo-diesel short-shifting grunt and you’ll soon be eating up the motorway miles. Steering, foot pedals and gear box operations all have an engineered and composed feel that never needed over-operating during those sedate drives. 

62mph comes in 13.6secs, which is reasonable enough, and if you do accelerate with spirit there’s a slight squat in the rear suspension and enough forward motion and pleasingly gruff engine soundtrack to give the impression of more speed than the (heads-up) speedo is actually showing. There are HDi 150 and HDi 163 engine options to look at, at higher prices, if 112 aren’t quite enough ponies for you. 

Ride-wise and this taller-than-your-average-car did surprisingly well during a bit of back lane hustling; it is based on a car after all.

Chassis grip is there and the nose goes where you point it via direct and well-weighted steering, while the Dynamic Roll Control lives up to its name by keeping that potentially swaying taller body in check, but there is still enough suspension pliancy to soak up the big bumps. 

But, with the 3008 firmly aimed at those with children and kit to carry, it’s quite unlikely that the 3008’s wing mirrors will be troubling the tarmac on any given weekend; however, it is nice to know that there’s a grippy, well-braked and easy to direct chassis underneath you and the loved ones. 

Economy-wise we didn’t match the quoted combined figure of 54.3mpg for the 3008 HDi 112. During a slightly unfair mix of nose-to-tail commuting and spirited back lane driving, our mpg-average was 41.4. This 3008 can cater for all types of driving well; including the quicker stuff, while its easy-driving nature should gently encourage most drivers towards a higher mpg figure than we achieved on our week-long test drive. Emissions are a respectable-for-vehicle-size 135g/km which attracts £115 of road tax per year. 



Ten second sum up:
The Peugeot 3008 HDi 112 fits the family-friendly bill very well with plenty of inner space, clever seating and storage, and a well-appointed spec-list for the price-point. It also delivers on the usual crossover must-haves of safety composure and over-traffic view. And while a little more bottom-end engine pulling power would have suited this tester better, there are plenty of other petrol and diesel engines in the range to look at. 



Prices and availability:
Prices start at £17,045 for the 3008 Active 1.6 VTi 120 petrol. Price as tested £21,595 (£24,325 inc. options) for the 3008 Exclusive HDi 122, plus options; metallic paint (£420), sat-nav (£735), leather seats (£1,050) and interior DVD entertainment (£525). 

www.peugeot.co.uk



By Daniel Anslow

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