The steering, accessed through that small, hexagonal wheel, feels alive and the chassis is remarkably adept. The good news is that whichever engine you choose, the 308 SW is a delight to drive. Unless your only driving is done in the outside lane of the motorway, then the hybrid or the 1.2 petrol versions are probably a better purchase. Drive it in Sport mode, and it feels a bit more up-and-at-’em, but not by all that much to be honest. Drive it in Eco mode (which prudence and propriety suggest you ought to) and while there’s solidly impressive acceleration up to about 60km/h, after that the engine starts to feel pretty breathless and unenthusiastic. Of course, you could potentially do better with the plug-in hybrid version, as long as you plug it in regularly and make the most use of the electric driving potential, but there’s another reason to go plug-in – as a thing to drive, this 1.5 diesel is rather lacking. These are very, very impressive returns and at a time when fuel prices remain stubbornly high, they are rather reassuring. On a carefully driven longer journey, I saw 4.2 litres per 100km. In spite of a fair amount of right-foot provocation on my part, the 308 SW stubbornly refused to return economy figures any worse than 4.8 litres per 100km. In one sense, this is an excellent engine – that sense being how economical it is. Where once Peugeot might have offered two or three different diesel engine options, now it offers just this one – a 1.5-litre BlueHDI engine with 130hp and 300Nm of torque. Having once commanded 75 per cent of the Irish car market, diesel’s popularity, in the face of the emissions-cheating scandal and the growing climate crisis, has unsurprisingly waned. Now, I did mention the dreaded D word – diesel.
Here in this diesel-engined SW you’ve got a whopping 608 litres to play with, or 548 litres if you get the hybrid This SW is 4.6m (15ft) long and has a 2.7m (8.8ft) wheelbase. It is a considerably larger car, though – the hatchback 308 is 4.3m (14.1ft) long with a 2.6m (8.5ft) wheelbase. The 308 SW is, as you’d expect, the estate version of the new and broadly well-received 308 hatchback. Will this convince you? Will this new Peugeot 308 SW actually turn around Irish car buyers’ preference for buying vehicles that are needlessly tall and heavy? Probably not, but one must try. Studies have shown that if you took SUVs out of the equation, CO2 emissions from cars would actually have fallen significantly over the past decade. You’ve all gone out in your hordes and continued to buy SUVs, even though we all know – for a fact – that they’re the worst kind of car for the environment. Yet for all our persistence in this area… crickets. It’s not like we haven’t said, repeatedly, that if you’re looking for a usefully practical car with some style, and one that remains enjoyable to drive, you really ought to buy an estate.
Verdict: Smarter to look at, nicer to drive, and roomier in the boot than almost any SUV.
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