Peugeot’s new 308 – on sale in both left- and right-hand drive in the UK, France and Germany from September – is an evolution of the 307, according to designer Keith Ryder.
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“The 307 was obviously a revolution over the 306 and, because it was such a success with more than 3m sold, what we had to do with 308 was to take it to the next stage,” said Ryder, director of production car design at Peugeot.
The 308 is built on the 307 platform with the same wheelbase but it is 5cms wider and 7cms longer. And, just when everyone else is making their C-segment cars taller, Peugeot has made the 308 fractionally lower, by 1.2cms.
“When you see the 307 and 308 together the difference is immense,” he said. “Our job was to make the car look as dynamic as possible.”
To do that, the 308 is lower and wider and sports the latest evolution of what Ryder calls Peugeot’s ‘cat’s eyes’ front. This will evolve with future Peugeots but always retain a strong family – and feline – look.
“We wanted a car which is elegant, strong and seductive,” he said. His favourite bit of the 308 is the front three-quarter.
The biggest change – the revolution – comes in the interior which Peugeot claims is a big step forward in quality.
“When we showed our original idea for the interior we were told that it could never be put into production – it was more like a show car than a production car. But, thanks to a fantastic rapport with the engineering team, we’ve done it,” said Ryder.
Interior designer Karine Collard, head of colour and trim, said that the team drew inspiration from old English, Italian and American cars – cars like Austin Healeys, 1960s Cadillacs and Ferraris – and gave those a modern interpretation. She is most pleased with the dashboard and the variety of interior trims available.
“I think we have something to appeal to everyone, young and old,” she said. “We really set the bar higher for this car to give a greater impression of quality.”
The 308 goes on sale in the UK at the same time as France and Germany.
“We pushed hard for that,” said Steve Harris, director of fleet and leasing at Peugeot UK. “We won’t have any 307s left by August and September is a really important month for sales so we are delighted to have right-hand drive sales at the same time as left-hand drive sales start.”
The 308 will launch in five-door form and in customary Sport, SE and GT trim. The three-door model arrives at the end of the year.
UK sales target for the first full year is 40,000, a shade under the best year for 307, and Harris admits that they are being bullish about the 308’s prospects.
