About a week ago, after three months with the C3, I got a call from Avis ?we?re going to retire the C3 form our fleet, so we?d like to arrange a handover.? A little while before that, a colleague of mine who works at the same client, and drives an Avis rental too had gotten a fresh 208 as replacement for his rental Corsa. So I wasn?t exactly surprised when I walked up to a young woman in a suit next to a black five door Peugeot 208.
The appearance of the 208 is a well-known to me, they sell like hot cakes over here, so I run into quite a few of them on my daily commute. I really like how they got rid of the gaping maw, although its replacement looks a bit derpy at first, but it?s grown on me in the year I?ve seen them on the road. At the rear, there?s funky light clusters, a big fat bumper, and a nice chrome touch below the rear window. All in all, I quite like its appearance.
Getting in, I was greeted by a ridiculously small steering wheel, and a fairly wide binnacle, with the dials separated by a large TFT screen. Instead of looking though the wheel at the dials, you?re supposed to look over it. Finding a nice position took a bit of trial and error, mostly because the wheel is so much smaller than I?m used to, making it constantly feel like it?s sitting too low. Finally I found a nice position, and then the strange layout starts to make sense. The wheel is nicely proportioned, and grips easily, while the dials, being fairly high and far away from you, require less eye movement and refocusing than a more traditional layout. To the right is a huge touch-screen that is used for radio, hands-free calling, some computer readouts, picture slideshows, and the optional navigation, which is fitted to this particular example. Below this are the controls for the climate control system, and further down is a small storage compartment with the 12V connector, an AUX in and two USB connectors, so you can plug in a stick with your photos for the slideshow without needing to unplug your music.
Rear legroom is quite acceptable, with the front seat set to my dimensions, I could still comfortably sit in the rear, with still room for my knees behind the front seat. Behind this is a boot that's about what you'd expect from a car in this class.
The touchscreen?s UI has a carrousel like design, and you?re supposed to swipe from one page to the next, which isn?t an easy feat, considering the touchscreen is of the resistive kind, meaning you need to press down hard while swiping. The touchscreen is quite nice in use, with large buttons and a high contrast user interface that is easily readable, even in bright sunlight. Since I can only use this car for commutes, testing the navigation isn?t really possible. The map data is fairly recent, being a year older than the car.
On to driving, the car is propelled along by the same 1.2l three cylinder engine as in the C3, mated to the same gearbox. As in the C3, it?s quite a nice combo, the engine with its 82PS has little effort getting the 950kg 208 up to motorway speeds and beyond. 0-100 takes a little over 12 seconds, and the top speed is supposed to be 175 kph, which is still faster than the average car on the Dutch roads, even when I don?t count the gazillions of lorries crowding up the slow lanes. The suspension is clearly ?sportier? than the C3?s, speedbumps and other irregularities are clearly felt by the occupants of the car, but it?s far from uncomfortable. The upshot of this firmer suspension is that the steering and handling are noticeably sharper than the C3?s, which wasn?t bad to begin with. The 208 loves to attack corners at speed, and responds willingly, only understeering when you are clearly overstepping its boundaries. The small and narrow steering wheel makes controlling the car easy and precise, and together with the sharp steering allows you to very precisely position the car.
All in all, this is easily the best small Peugeot since they retired the 205. In fact, I like this car so much that I expect to pay a visit to a Peugeot dealer soon to see if we can work out a nice deal on one, since the Merc is getting a bit large and expensive, especially in insurance and taxes, now that we don't really drive that much anymore as a couple years ago.