Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon 2023 Review

The new 2023 Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon is the most expensive model in the new Peugeot 308 range – and the only station wagon variant available – priced at $50,490 plus on-road costs.

A plug-in hybrid version of the hatchback, the 308 GT Sport PHEV, arrives mid-year and will likely overtake the GT Premium Wagon when pricing is announced.

At the lower end, the 308 range starts from $43,990 for the 308 GT Hatch and $48,990 for the 308 GT Premium Hatch (both plus ORCs).

Our test car came in at $51,550 plus on-roads with its optional premium paint.

There are no obvious direct competitors to the 308 GT Premium Wagon, as the nearest, the Volkswagen Golf Wagon, is more than $10,000 cheaper in lower-rung 110TSI Life trim – or more than $10,000 more expensive in hot Golf R form.

The Subaru WRX Sportswagon, another small hot wagon starting at $49,990 plus ORCs, is closer.

The Peugeot’s pricing is around the same mark as entry-level versions of the Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series, although with no wagon body style available there either, buyers may naturally migrate to premium-spec small SUVs from any number of brands.

The 2023 Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon comes with plenty of standard features.

There’s Nappa leather seat upholstery, a leather-clad and heated steering wheel with paddle shifters, power-adjustable driver’s seat, heated front seats with massage function, privacy glass, panoramic-opening glass sunroof, electro-chromatic rear-view mirror, dusk-sensing headlights, rain-sensing wipers, one-touch power windows front and rear and power-adjustable, power-fold and heated side mirrors.

Further standard gear includes proximity (hands-free) unlocking/locking and push-button start.

Wheels are 18-inch matte-black alloys, fitted with 225/40R18 tyres, but there is no spare wheel, just a tyre inflation kit (although there looks to be just enough space under the cargo floor for a space-saver spare wheel).

Finally, the wagon features a powered tailgate with gesture control and pedestrian detection, but does not share the GT Premium hatch’s Focal 10-speaker sound system, instead using the base six-speaker audio system from the GT hatch.

Metallic paint is a $690 option or you’ll pay $1060 for premium paint; Avatar Blue is the standard, no-cost colour for the wagon.

Peugeot provides a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty for the 2023 Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon, with five years of free roadside assist and five years of capped-price servicing also part of the deal. Prices are $2489 for five years’ worth of servicing if you choose to pay as you go, or $1800 if you pre-purchase a service plan.

You don’t have to buy five years’ worth of servicing; there is the option of a three-year pre-paid plan for $1000.

While Peugeot has built many cars rated highly by independent safety authorities over the years, the new P51/P52-series Peugeot 308 has only achieved a four-star rating (out of five) under the latest testing regime in Europe and Australasia.

It received 79 per cent for adult occupant protection under 2022 ANCAP testing, along with 68 per cent for protection of vulnerable road users and 86 per cent for child occupants. Safety assist features were rated at 82 per cent.

Nevertheless, the 2023 Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon is bundled with most safety features owners would want.

It has front, side and curtain airbags, autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection, rear cross traffic alert, long-range (up to 70m) blind spot detection, active lane positioning assist and lane keep assist, driver attention warning, adaptive cruise control with auto stop, and speed limit recognition.

It’s also fitted with full Matrix LED headlights, front and rear parking sensors, 360-degree surround-view and 180-degree rear-view cameras, and a tyre pressure monitoring system.

At first glance, the new 2023 Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon has a high degree of tech sophistication, although the shine dulled a little during our two-week loan of the car.

Sure, the new 10-inch 3D i-Cockpit is a revelation and gives a neat hologram effect that actually works to give information in a clear way, all customisable too, in terms of presentation.

Then there’s the 10-inch centre infotainment screen, bundled with wireless internet connectivity for sat-nav features as part of the deal for three years (after which you’ll have to pay for the subscription, with prices to be announced closer to the time).

Long-standing mapping technology company TomTom supplies the service, which provides information such as the nearest fuel station and fuel pricing, carpark space availability, live traffic updates, live route updates and so on.

The screen offers much deeper functionality and is a higher resolution than before. It has customisable screens, for colours, widgets, shortcut order and a drag-and-drop delete function, to list but a few.

The infotainment screen is not always easy to use. It’s much better than the T9-series 308 predecessor, but still has sometimes-confusing menus that two weeks spent with the car did not fully resolve.

Primarily, the menus are not always logical and we could not find the massage seat function, despite spending a lot of time looking for it.

As for the rest of the tech suite, there is a USB-A and a USB-C port in the front console, plus a wireless phone charger. There’s a 12V socket up front, too, while a second USB-C socket is available in the back seat.

The 308 GT Premium Wagon also scores voice recognition, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, AM/FM radio, DAB radio and six speakers.

As with the rest of the current 308 range so far, the 2023 Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon has a turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine we first saw about nine years ago in this form.

The 1.2-litre Puretech 130 develops 96kW and 230Nm and is linked to an eight-speed automatic transmission.

There are other versions of this engine (such as in the Citroen C4 Shine) that develop much more power and torque (114kW/240Nm in the C4 Shine) so it is unclear why Peugeot has persisted with the same outputs it offered in 2014 – albeit linked then to a six-speed auto, not an eight-speed as it has offered since 2017.

Perhaps it is to give enough space between the petrol range and the upcoming, higher-performance PHEV hatch.

The 308 wagon has a 9.9sec claimed 0-100km/h acceleration time, which is a little on the leisurely side for a car badged ‘GT’.

In any case, the three-cylinder turbo is a willing, smooth performer and sounds great doing its job.

There is a little bit of lag present in the ‘Normal’ setting, but once Sport is engaged it is very responsive.

The manufacturer claims the 2023 Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon will achieve a combined 5.3L/100km and CO2 emissions of 120g/km.

During testing we returned a figure of 6.2L/100km for a mix of urban and freeway work.

The 2023 Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon sits on a longer wheelbase than the hatch and does not suffer for it dynamically.

This is an enjoyable wagon to drive placidly or with purpose on a twisting road.

Steering is responsive to input and the 308 tracks through corners well.

On most road surfaces it rides smoothly too, although the rear suspension can be tripped up by large bumps.

The 2023 Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon is a slightly larger car than before overall, but cargo area space is slightly down (by 20 litres) at 605 litres with the rear seats upright.

You feel as though you sit slightly lower in the new 308 over the previous model, and there is a real step up in apparent material quality. There are more soft-touch surfaces and nice-to-have features such as interior mood lighting.

The rear seat offers a good amount of versatility with its 40/20/40 split, and has two ISOFIX and three top-tether child seat anchor points.

Driver seat lumbar support is excellent and the cabin is a quiet, comfortable place to sit for most.

However, if you are tall and need to cart around a couple of teenagers, you might find the 308 a bit of a squeeze.

The 2023 Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon is one of the few new cars I have driven lately where people have stopped to look at it in the street.

As an owner of a previous-generation 2015 Peugeot 308 Access 1.2 manual, this new model was of great interest personally, too.

The new 308 wagon is attractive and distinctive, but would be better served with a slightly lower specification that brings its pricing down.

Alternatively, a higher-output engine and extra equipment (especially for safety), would make the $50,000-plus stretch more understandable.

Given the current package, I’d be looking over at Subaru for some rally-bred satisfaction in the form of a slightly more expensive Subaru WRX GT Sportswagon.

Still, for those wanting something different to the never-ending sea of tall-box SUVs, something offering a load of French style, a reasonable dose of technology plus responsive performance and handling, the 308 wagon remains a good choice.

2023 Peugeot 308 GT Premium Wagon at a glance:
Price: $50,490 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 96kW/230Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 5.3L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 120g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Four-star (ANCAP 2022)