Peugeot 308 GTi 2016 Review

Peugeot 308 GTi 270
Road Test

The problem for the 308 GTi is the Ford Focus RS. It has simply up-ended the whole hot hatch segment.

The Pug might have even been the best of the litter in the pre-RS era, but that’s like saying it was the best silent movie before the talkies arrived.

On facts and figures alone the argument is compelling; the RS is only $1000 more expensive than the GTi but stirs a whole heap more power and torque and a trick all-wheel drive system into the pot.

Then there’s the important bit; the driving. The GTi is wonderful, but the RS is brilliant.

The good news for the GTi is that just about every other hotty pitched at this price-point is in the same boat; the STI, the Golf R, the Megane RS. Indeed, most of them are far worse off.

That’s because the Peugeot Sport-tuned GTi 270’s a darn fine example of the hot hatch breed, with a rorty 1.6-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine and sorted front-wheel drive chassis that crucially includes a Torsen limited-slip differential.

So you can fire the raspy little e-THP engine up – it sounds extra good when you press the Sport button – and charge off down a winding road, confident that you are going to get guts, grip and grins. Unsurprisingly, there’s some torque steer under hard acceleration, but most of the time the electric-assist steering delivers lots of feel rather than lots of frustration. It weights up when you press that sport button, but it’s actually at its best a bit lighter in Normal mode.

There are other foibles and characteristics; the six-speed manual (it’s the only transmission choice) has an action that’s a bit long for a sports model. But countering that, the shifts themselves are almost always clean and precise. Mated with the gearbox is a light but adjustable clutch pedal.

Nor is this the quickest accelerating car in the hot hatch world. A 6.0sec 0-100km/h time bears that out. That’s good, not great. But as is typical of these torque-laden turbos, there’s more satisfaction to be found in the midrange than in revving to the 6000rpm redline and beyond.

Somewhat predictably, the 6.0L/100km combined fuel consumption average is either optimistic or fantasy depending on how hard you drive this thing. We saw 11.3L during a determined session on some great roads.

Then there’s the ride; it’s a case of hang-on as best you can at low speed on the stiff passive set-up and 19-inch Michelin Super Sport rubber. But once speeds rise a bit that tends to sort itself out. And as we’ve already noted, the tune of the MacPherson struts up-front and twist beam at the rear makes this car more than amenable to being chucked around. Weighing in at just over 1200kg helps in that regard too.

No qualms at all about the GTi’s brake package which combines 380mm ventilated front discs and Alcon calipers up-front that really do the business when this hard-charger needs to be slowed down.

In fact, if you want evidence of just how good the GTi 270 is at the limit then click on this link to review the car’s performance on-track at Baskerville Raceway in Tasmania during Australia’s Best Driver’s Car. It was the very definition of a surprise package…

Come back from the edge of the driving envelope and the 308 GTi 270 does have some issues.

We’ve already mentioned the price and we should explain that money delivers up 200kW (or 270hp, hence the name) and 330Nm. Other key specification includes six airbags, LED headlights, front and rear parking sensors and a reversing camera, a head-up display, a 9.7-inch touchscreen, satellite-navigation, dual-zone climate control and a digital speedo.

There’s also the Driver Sport Pack which illuminates the instrument panel display red, provides more aggressive accelerator pedal mapping and readouts for power, torque, turbo boost and longitudinal and transverse acceleration (as well as the aforementioned engine note and steering weight tuning).

But there’s no sign of the latest driver assist systems like autonomous emergency braking (AEB) or rear cross-traffic alert.

If you can’t stretch to the full spend then there’s the $44,990 (plus ORCs) GTI 250, which drops to 184kW but retains 330Nm. It also trades down to 18-inch alloy wheels and Pilot Sport rubber, has a lower level brake package and less aggressively shaped front sports seats.

Speaking of the driving position, which we sort of were, Peugeot champions a concept it calls i-Cockpit that essentially demands the tiny flat-bottomed steering wheel be dumped into the driver’s lap.

My preference is to sit low and have the wheel high, so nothing could feel more alien. I have tried to come to grips with it several times, including driving a standard 308 to Bathurst and back last year, but it just feels all wrong. i-Cramped more like it.

The problem then is if you revert to an orthodox seating position much of the instrumentation is blocked out, including a whole chunk of the analogue speedo and tacho (the needles of which, curiously, swing in toward each other rather than outward).

i-Cockpit is a blight on an interior which is otherwise a laudably efficient, minimalist design. There are few buttons, that huge touchscreen and a level of fit and finish that belies Peugeot’s reputation for mediocre build quality.

The big front seats are terrifically comfortable and supportive but compromise rear-seat leg room. However, the five-seat bodyshell means rear seat access is straight forward. The boot is decently sized, but partly because it lacks a spare tyre. The rear seats fold to expand space from 470 to 1309 litres.

Incidental storage varies. there are door pockets front and rear and seat-back pockets, but the cupholder obviously still hasn’t taken hold as a concept at Peugeot…

But you know what the 308 GTi 270 really needs more than a place to carry your latte?

A $4000 price cut. Make it $45,990 (plus ORCs) and the GTi 250 $40,990 (plus ORCs) and all of a sudden the balance of the hot hatch universe is back in some sort of order.

Right now, despite it being so good, there is no reason to buy this car ahead of the Focus RS. Drop the price and logic dictates it must be worth a look. All of a sudden it’s not competing with the RS, it’s kicking just about everything else in the arse.

Emotion, however, isn’t dictated to by logic of course, so if you have an affection for Peugeots and can cop the driving positon then you will most likely love this car. Yep, it’s been superseded by the latest and greatest thing, but its intrinsic goodness can’t be denied.

2016 Peugeot 308 GTi 270 pricing and specifications:
Price: $49,990 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 1.6-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder
Outputs: 200kW/330Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel: 6.0L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 139g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star ANCAP

Also consider:
Ford Focus RS (from $50,990)
Renault Megane RS 275 (from $53,000)
Volkswagen Golf R (from $52,740)