The UK motoring press is falling over itself to praise the interior of the all-new Peugeot 308. This week’s Autocar says “it’s meant to look classy and it succeeds”, while Auto Express says the French firm “has really raised the game in this area”.

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And even the man who designed the hatchback’s cabin is pleased with how it’s turned out. Speaking at the UK launch, director of design for Peugeot Keith Ryder said: “We realise this is kind of seductive for this segment of car. It’s the sort of thing you would see in a sports coupé. We’re certain the interior of the 308 is going to pose a lot of questions for our competitors.”


There’s a definite feeling of quality to the cabin, but the most obvious change is that it’s angled away from the front seat occupants – much more so than the upright centre console of the outgoing 307. Ryder explained: “That car’s interior was very traditional, it offered nothing new. In designing the 308 it was the first thing to go for, to introduce a major innovation to the interior, and the way we wanted to do that was to push the volumes forward.”


Ryder told the story of how, back in August 2003, he created a very basic model of the interior. “People came back from their holidays and said it looked great, but that we would never get it into the production 308. So we had a presentation [to his superiors] and they said they liked the concept and that they really wanted to try to do it. The team we put together was very open-minded and wanted to try to have a go and get this thing through. It was the right idea at the right time when resources were available,” he said.


And the good news for Peugeot fans is there’s more of the same to come.

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“To make a giant step forward is what we’re looking for, and we have ideas of what to do. It’s getting them into production. The team of people we have got is willing to take risks, and if you have that in place anything is possible. What we have here will follow through into the next generation of models,” said Ryder.