The new Peugeot 208 is both smaller and an average 114kg lighter than the outgoing 207. That should mean improved economy and fewer emissions, especially as there are also new three-cylinder engines. So how does the car measure up?

This B-segment three- and five-door hatchback is certainly going to be an important model for PSA. It’s already challenging the Renault Clio for the number one position in France. I had a look at registrations totals and the 208 was up four spots over June to 7,115 sales and a 4.8% share compared to 6,830 and 4.6% for the Clio.

In the UK, the C segment is where the big volume is but the B segment isn’t that far behind and the Peugeot brand had exactly 5.0% of the overall market in July. With the 208 on sale since late June, I would expect the brand to start seeing its share creeping upwards, especially with the September registration plate change almost upon us and the car market having been improving for five consecutive months now.

Peugeot UK sees the sales mix as 38% fleet and 62% private for its newest model, petrol variants taking an estimated 74% of registrations and the pricier diesels the remaining 26%. The three-door/five-door sales ratio should be 31%/69% with total sales next year envisaged at “over 50,000” units, the company says.

The world first saw the 208 at the Geneva motor show back in March, with the car reaching dealerships in left-hand drive European markets a few months later. It uses an update of PSA’s existing PF1 small car architecture but there are two new Trémery-built three-cylinder petrol engines, with displacements of 1.0 and 1.2 litres. There are also 1.4- and 1.6-litre diesels, as well as a 1.6-litre petrol and a turbocharged version of the same unit.

GlobalData Strategic Intelligence

US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?

Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.

By GlobalData

Production of the 208 is thus far restricted to Trnava (Slovakia) and Poissy (France) but Brazilian build is due to commence in the first quarter of 2013. This car is also highly likely to be the model that PSA has said will be made at the Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen (DPCA) joint venture’s Wuhan 3 factory from 2013. The company stated in May 2011 that its newest Chinese plant would manufacture a PF1 platform vehicle so the 208 seems a safe bet, along with the closely related Citroen C3.

Compared to the 207, the new car is 70mm shorter and 10mm lower, but the wheelbase is the same 2,538mm. PSA has worked hard to get the 1.0-litre base version under the one-tonne mark, with that variant tipping the scales at just 975kg compared to 1,160kg for the equivalent 207. Do bear in mind that there was no engine with as small a capacity in the 207, however. That’s not to belittle PSA’s admirable efforts at getting the weight out of what should be its eventual new global best seller – the heaviest 1.6 HDi still comes in under 1,100kg.

As a guide to how small European cars have generally become heavier over the decades, PSA quotes an average of just 880kg for the 205, rising to 974kg for its 206 successor of the 1990s. The last of these, by the way, remains Peugeot best selling car, with over 7.7 million built so far. You thought the 206 was out of production? No, it’s still sold in Europe as the 206+ and as the 207 Brasil in you can guess where. The previous record holder had been the 205 with close to 5.0 million having found homes over that car’s long lifecycle.

The engineers who were charged with making the new 208 more economical obviously started at the logical place: using fewer materials where possible meant designing a physically smaller car. After bringing the dimensions back to where cars in this segment were 5-10 years ago, they then managed to remove 25kg from the 208’s superstructure, 27kg from the rear-end, 23kg from the car’s front-end modules and 20kg by insisting on fewer and lighter interior components.

What PSA calls exterior equipment saved a further 15kg and here there have been some innovations too: manufacturing world firsts are claimed for the rear bumper and the fan assembly, each of which is made entirely of a mix of either recycled or natural-origin materials.

Styling is such a subjective thing so all I can do here is point out some of the new model’s distinguishing features. These include a new take on the usual Peugeot feline-themed headlamp shape plus the letters of PEUGEOT picked out in bright silvery plastic just above the grille and below the lion mascot. You can also tell things are getting a little bit sophisticated in what some call the Supermini class when a mass-brand manufacturer starts talking about its new car’s front and rear lamps as a “luminous signature”.

PSA has also decided to follow Opel-Vauxhall’s initiative by differentiating the three- and five-door body styles. Though each of these little Peugeots measures 3,962mm from end to end, they look quite different when you see them from side-on. The most obvious styling touch is a sort of hollowed-out look for the three-door which remind car spotters like me of the brand’s SR1 concept.

Inside, there is said to be 6cm more rear legroom despite the same amount of room for the packaging people to work with between the car’s wheelbase hardpoints. Some simple things have been done in a quest to liberate more space. The steering wheel sits lower than most in this class and is itself smaller than the one in the 207 – it’s thicker to grip than the tiny one in the Prius but about the same size. The driver looks over, not through the wheel at the instruments, which is something of a novelty, and you quickly get used to it.

From Active trim upwards you get a 7″ touch screen monitor in the top-middle part of the dashboard and that means fingertip activation for a bluetooth phone and audio streaming. Naturally there’s also a USB connection for your music files. Peugeot has also bundled in European mapping with the £400 option of integrated touch-screen navigation to tempt people away from aftermarket satnavs.

I enjoyed driving the 208 mostly due to that terrific driving position with the wheel almost in my lap and with deep glass either side and in front of me. I was also especially interested in the new engines. Predictably there isn’t as much torque as anyone who is considering trading in a 1.4 or 1.6-litre 207 will be used to but that doesn’t mean the 1.0- and 1.2-litre petrols fail to deliver.

You do have to rev the little petrol motors to get the most out of them and I much prefer the 1.6-litre diesel but that’s just a personal preference. You really can feel the extra weight of the bigger capacity HDi over the front wheels too but along with that comes what felt like a more compliant ride.

One of Peugeot UK’s weapons in clawing back sales and market share from rivals continues to be Just Add Fuel. This means a fixed-price monthly payment for pretty much all the costs associated with car ownership, including insurance, over a three-year period. It’s particularly attractive to first-time buyers who might struggle just to be able to afford comprehensive insurance for any new car.

Peugeot has now extended Just Add Fuel to cover drivers as young as 21, with the package including servicing, road tax, warranty, breakdown cover and comprehensive insurance for £179 a month (£205 for 21 year olds) on a 107 Active.  Consider that the monthly insurance for someone in their early 20s can be more than £200 a month and it’s easy to see why Peugeot’s initiative continues to be so successful.

Sales of the brand’s cheapest model are up 40% year-on-year thanks mostly to Just Add Fuel, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that in a few years’ time, there’s going to be a large pool of still-young 107 owners looking to upgrade to a bigger and plusher 208. Some might not want to take that long to have Peugeot’s newest model so as long as they can stump up a £1,500 deposit and pay £285 a month, that’s enough to get them into a 208. Just Add Fuel is then added on top of that monthly loan repayment.

So the usual question; would I buy one? Twenty years ago I bought a 205 GTI and have very fond memories of it but small Peugeots and me have both changed somewhat since the days when John Major was into his second stint as PM. The 208 is an infinitely better and far safer car than its great-grandfather and with prices starting at just £9,995 it’s also pretty good value too.

You can pay almost twice the base version’s cost if you choose to go for the Ice Velvet limited edition (a £19,000 Peugeot 208? You’d better believe it) which acts as the range topper until the arrival of the one I’m waiting for, the 208 GTI. This will get the 197bhp 1.6-litre turbo that we know and love from the RCZ. If it looks anything like the concept version which was revealed at the Geneva show back in March, it might even have the makings of a new cult small Peugeot. Next year can’t come soon enough.

Author: Glenn Brooks