Peugeot 508 GT Sportswagon 2020 Review

Nothing prepares you for the progress made by the engineers who have developed the latest Peugeot 508, not even the evidence of those known features already sampled in other Peugeot products – the manufacturer's i-Cockpit set-up, for instance, or the punchy 1.6-litre turbo engine from the 308 GTI.

The new 508 does with a downsized petrol engine what a larger diesel engine couldn’t do in the past – deliver lower overall fuel consumption, stronger power and better refinement. It does so for the same price as the flagship 508 GT wagon from over eight years ago.

Both the diesel engines in the previous generation of 508 – the larger 2.2- litre unit being canned in 2015 – produced more torque than today's petrol engine, but neither was as smooth as the new powerplant, nor as flexible across a wider rev range.

The 0-100km/h time for the new 508 is marginally better than the time taken by the 2.2-litre diesel, likely due in part to the new car's lighter weight and extra cogs in the eight-speed automatic transmission.

Other than that normal lethargic zone between idle and 2000rpm the responsive turbocharged engine produces torque in equal amounts all the way to the 6000rpm redline. It’s a very subdued engine at open road speeds when it’s running at around 1700rpm.

Go for full throttle however – especially in Sport mode – and it sounds a little more dynamic with a deeper, more muscular note than a Mercedes-Benz four-cylinder, but not at the same level as a turbocharged four-pot BMW powerplant.

And the smaller petrol engine is also impressively economical. Around town it was achieving an underwhelming figure of 9.5L/100km, based on a number of short trips from cold starts, but on a 70km test loop the trip computer posted a figure of 8.6L/100km.

Off on a post-Christmas cruise down the coast, the 508 – with four adults on board and enough luggage to fill the boot to about 105 per cent of capacity – the 508 was posting an easily achievable figure below 5.0L/100km.

At times, the trip computer was spitting out figures as low as 3.5L/100km when the weather was completely calm and the road was flat as a tack.

There were no complaints concerning the automatic transmission. It behaved impeccably and operated adaptively, even in Eco mode, to generate engine braking on hills. This is amplified in Sport mode of course.

At open-road speeds the Peugeot 508 GT provided a very serene ambience in the cabin. There was some rustle of wind over the body at 100km/h, but minimal. Perhaps the wind noise was more noticeable, permeating from the large sunroof.

Conversely, the subdued road noise probably highlighted the one minor shortcoming in noise suppression. This is a very quiet car overall.

The Peugeot’s ride feels very measured; at times the 508 pitched and tossed slightly, but in general it is a well chosen calibration that will soak up bumps of any size pretty well and still provide good front-end grip and stable handling at speed.

There’s more steering weight and feel when the driving mode is set to Sport, but the Peugeot is a touring machine more than a sports car, as its trim level indicates.

The steering is fairly direct and while the small, low-set steering wheel seems like it’s there to be whipped around like a fidget spinner, it doesn’t require much hand-over-hand action to negotiate tighter turns.

Brake pedal feel is firm and progressive. The brakes themselves are strong, but hit the pedal really hard and the hazard warning lights will be activated – and can only be deactivated by manually pressing the button in the centre fascia.

The 508 sits quite low to the ground, yet to its credit it doesn’t scrape its front-end backing in or driving out of the driveway at home. And its tight turning circle is a boon in multi-storey car parks or other tight spots.

Faced with a speed restriction sign for a school zone, the 508 has the same problem as its German rivals. The car’s traffic sign recognition will opt for the 40km/h speed limit, even at 10pm – long after the kiddies are tucked up in bed.

The headlights incorporate both a high-beam assist function and static cornering lights. While the bright headlights are set slightly short on low beam, the high-beam assist works well to make up the difference, although as is often the case with a system like this, it can be slow reacting to an oncoming car on approach from any direction other than straight ahead.

For reasons that cannot be explained, the Peugeot’s active cruise control was reluctant at times to keep the car at the set speed. Those occasions appeared to be when there was a vehicle in the lane to the right travelling below the set speed.

The Peugeot would slow down to match the speed of that car, even though it wasn’t directly in front. This was very frustrating when the gap to the car dead ahead was literally hundreds of metres. I can only assume that this is a system that has been set up for the UK market, where overtaking on the left is not permitted.

Kudos to Peugeot for specifying a climate control system that could cope with 40-degree days.

The Peugeot 508 GT sits quite close to the ground, and this is where my wife (and I, for that matter) missed the hip point of an SUV when entering or alighting from the car.

Once inside, the driver will find the driving position to be not quite ideal, although taller peeps can extend the base and tilt the cushion up to provide more under-thigh support for the right leg (the accelerator and brake pedal are markedly closer than the footrest on the left).

Those familiar with other Peugeot models will raise the same ergonomic praise/objections for the 508. You’ll either love or hate the small steering wheel and the high-mounted instruments of the i-Cockpit set-up.

I subscribe to the ‘love’ school of thought. But if the layout, control placement and functionality of German prestige brands is second nature to you, the Peugeot will seem like a slap in the face with a dead mackerel.

Spend some time in the Peugeot, however, and it mostly makes sense. Without an owners manual in the glovebox it took a while to work out how to reset the fuel economy tripmeter readout however (it’s accomplished by pressing and holding the button in the end of the wiper stalk).

The tachometer needle swings anticlockwise from idle to redline, so that’s going to catch out a few owners unaware of Peugeot ergonomic conventions, but that’s assuming they find out how to display the tachometer in the classic ‘Dials’ display anyway.

Scrolling through the instrument display themes is done by a wheel on the left spoke of the steering wheel hub, which seems counterintuitive, when it’s the right side of the instrument cluster that changes more with each different theme.

The wheel on the right side of the spoke changes music tracks or radio stations, but the volume control buttons are on the left spoke. There’s a separate volume knob jutting out of the centre fascia on the passenger side.

As often as not it’s quicker for the driver to stretch out and twirl that knob if something more than fine adjustment is required.

USB ports and phone charging tray are both tucked out of sight under the floating centre console, which is visually neat, but harder to reach on those occasions you need to plug in a memory stick of music.

An extraordinary range of settings is available for safety, for comfort, for the car – including toggling on or off the downward mirror tilt when reversing.

With the 508, Peugeot is approaching and possibly surpassing German engineering teams for introducing complexity and sophistication in vehicle operation.

Yet I admit to saying all this on the basis of being more at home with the Deutsch way of doing things. If I had driven as many Peugeots as I have driven Audis over the past 12 months, I wouldn’t be offering these same observations.

A long journey to the coast is a test of the Peugeot’s seat comfort. The front seats are nicely contoured, but I did feel that the seat base was a little too firm by the time I’d been seated behind the wheel for three hours.

Similarly, both rear-seat passengers complained of mild discomfort after two or three hours of driving, with my daughter stating that she felt some discomfort in the lower back after two hours.

My 185cm son found the legroom to be lacking, even seated behind the front-passenger seat adjusted forward for a shorter occupant. Legroom is adequate, however, for rear-seat occupants below about 180cm tall.

Headroom was actually commendable for a swoopy, low-roof wagon. Peugeot's clever design for the sunroof is what delivers that headroom, the sunroof sliding into a protruding receptacle in the headlining ahead of where the passengers sit.

Adjustable vents and two recharging USB ports are located in the rear of the centre console for use by the rear-seat passengers. Both are undeniably essential for longer journeys.

When it comes to transporting lots of luggage, the Peugeot is rated at a handy 530 litres of boot space, although even this seemed not quite adequate for our family of four on a week-long break. It was possible to monitor vehicles behind using the rear-vision mirror (just).

For those who are carting goods rather than passengers, the flip-forward seats don't fold entirely flat, but they are at least flush with the boot floor in the lowered position. Finger-pull levers either side of the luggage compartment unlatch the seats for those occasions the user has longer items to load into the boot.

Finally, there’s a space-saver spare tyre under the boot floor.

As accomplished as the Peugeot proved to be, it was apparent by the end of the week that it’s really an ‘occasional’ family car, in the manner we were using it.

An SUV for the same money or less would have achieved the same general results, but perhaps with extra all-year-round practicality – for towing maybe, or going off-road, or even just taking a seat without experiencing arthritic discomfort.

Sadly, this is why cars like the Peugeot 508 GT are increasingly bit-part players in the Australian market. It’s lovely and it’s fuel efficient and driveable, but all its design modernity can’t hold back the SUV challenge.

How much does the 2020 Peugeot 508 GT Sportswagon cost?
Price: $55,990 (plus on-road costs), $59,540 (as tested, plus ORCs)
Engine: 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 165kW/300Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 6.3L/100km (ADR Combined); 8.6L/100km (as tested)
CO2: 142g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star ANCAP (2019)