PSA built the 100,000th Peugeot 2008 after just nine months of production at the Mulhouse plant in France. Now, a night shift has just been added (15 September) to keep up with demand. What’s driving this success?
This derivative of the 208 had its first public outing at last year’s Geneva motor show, with sales commencing in June (July in the UK). Since then, it has muscled in on the Opel/Vauxhall Mokka and Nissan Juke as one of the strongest sellers in the B-crossover segment. Like the Renault Captur, it’s especially popular in France and, it’s a brisk seller in Britain too.
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Proving that buyers care more about economy and a low CO2 number that all-wheel drive capability, the little Peugeot is FWD-only. Clearly, this hasn’t held back its potential across Europe, or indeed in China either, the other place where the 2008 is proving popular. There, it’s manufactured in DPCA’s Wuhan No.3 factory in Hubei province. Brazil could be another success story for this model, after its launch there in the coming months. The worldwide sales goal for next year is 221,000 units, according to PSA. Cars for Europe are made at Mulhouse in France.
If you’re familiar with the 208, you’ll be at home inside the 2008. It feels like a taller version of the five-door hatchback, and it has the same low-mounted, small diameter steering wheel, plus a touchscreen for most of the controls. At 4.16m long, it’s sized right for its segment and obviously slots into the Peugeot range below the 3008, 4008 and 5008. In the UK, Peugeot’s data shows that the owner demographic of the B-crossover class is 56/44% male/female, of which 58% were private buyers in 2013.
PSA’s design team has been generous with the glazing, and this includes an optional glass roof panel. On the test model, this had light blue LED lights along its sides, which gave the cabin a calming glow, and these are matched by the same shade of LEDs which outline the instruments immediately ahead of the driver. It’s a shame that the roof’s shade is translucent, meaning there’s no protection from strong rays overhead.
If you’re in the habit of resting your left arm as you drive, you’ll find that the handbrake lever has a wide, flat surface built into it, so although this might be a bit low for some, it means more elbow space between front seat occupants.
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By GlobalDataSuper-light steering means this is a long way from the 208 GTi but B-crossover buyers aren’t really terribly interested in dragging off other drivers from traffic lights. I loved the Juke Nismo when I tested one but you don’t see many about – I suspect not many OEMs will be jumping in to join Nissan in this market niche. No, Peugeot is wise to keep the 2008 dynamically set up for those who want as comfortable a ride as possible, and on this front, the car delivers.
The 1,199cc three-cylinder engine can get a bit buzzy at higher speeds as the manual gearbox has only five ratios. At 80mph, it’s spinning at 4,000rpm and even at the legal limit, it’s still revving at 3,500 beats per minute. Maybe I’m just too used to diesels. Something else I have a strong preference for is vehicles having a proper spare tyre. Not only does the 2008 has one of these but the boot is nonetheless deep too. Its capacity is 360 litres, or up to 1,194 with seats folded. Load height is 60cm.
Maximum speed is quoted as 150mph, zero to 62mph takes an official 13.5 seconds and thanks to a kerb weight of just 1,045kg, the CO2 average is only 114g/km. The Combined average is 57.6mpg. You can also have this engine with stop-start (an extra GBP700 for as-tested Allure trim), which drops the CO2 to 99g/km.
Other powertrain choices for 2008 buyers in Britain are a 70bhp 1.4-litre HDi diesel, 92bhp and 155bhp 1.6-litre HDi diesels or a 120bhp 1.6-litre VTi petrol.
As mentioned earlier, there’s no all-wheel drive availability, due to this model using PSA’s PF1 platform. Instead, there’s something called Grip Control, which allows you to switch modes depending on the conditions. So you can dial up either Standard, Snow, Mud, Sand or ESP off. Conditions were dry during my time with the car – who says the English summer doesn’t exist? – and in Standard there were no moments of lost traction. Nope, it didn’t drive it like a Juke Nismo.
The 2008 in Allure trim, powered by an 82bhp 1.2-litre petrol engine costs GBP15,295. Options fitted to the test car were Park Assist (parallel parking system) at GBP300, the ‘Cielo’ fixed glass roof (GBP400) and a SatNav upgrade with a second USB socket (GBP400).
