First drive: 2015 Peugeot 308 GT

The 308 GT is designed to take Peugeot’s popular family car one step closer to being a hot hatch

Peugeot’s marketing maestros would have you believe the new 308 GT is hotter than a vindaloo. That, with its turbocharged engine, chrome exhausts and sporty red dials, it is driven by the kind of people who keep their loo roll in the fridge.
Back in the real world the GT is not so much hot as warm, with a side helping of healthy practicality to go alongside the interesting bits. Not that being the biryani of the car world need be a bad thing. Peugeot itself has nailed this warm hatch formula numerous times in the past, picking up buyers who wanted a pinch of spice without stretching to a GTi.

Its modest intentions explain why the car in the pictures doesn’t scream boy racer (the 308R, likely to be shown in production form later this year, will address that). Rather, its stylistic upgrades are tastefully restrained and thoughtfully applied, such as relocating the badge from the bonnet to the grille, or swapping the standard indicators for ones whose LEDs sweep across the lens.

And while the alloy wheels look bling enough to adorn a Max Power special, they are in fact a not-at-all ridiculous 18 inches in diameter (and shod with Michelin Pilot Sport 3 rubber), which suggests that they won’t ruin the 308’s generally good ride.

There is also fakery at work here, however: peer behind those shiny exhausts and you’ll see that they are in fact not connected in any way whatsoever to the small pipes that puff out impressively low levels of CO2, whether you opt for your GT with petrol or diesel power.

The former uses a 1.6-litre engine and six-speed manual gearbox borrowed from the recent208 GT 30th Anniversary edition, yielding stats of 202bhp, 213lb ft of torque, 50.4mpg on the Combined cycle, 130g/km of CO2 and 0-62mph in of 7.5 seconds. It costs from £24,095.

If that doesn’t sound terribly spicy, then the diesel, on paper at least, is even less impressive, its 2.0-litre yielding equivalent figures of 177bhp, 300lb ft, 70.7mpg, 103g/km and 8.4 seconds in the benchmark sprint. Thanks in part to it only being available with a six-speed automatic, the diesel  also carries a big premium, hitting showrooms at £25,945. It’s also the only 308 GT available as an estate, costing £26,845. It is at this point in the review that you’d be wise to note that both Seat and Skoda offer more keenly priced alternatives.

In addition to the exterior tweaks and new engines, Peugeot has revised the 308’s suspension, lowering the ride height by 7mm at the front and 10mm at the rear, increasing the stiffness of the springs and dampers (20 per cent front, 10 per cent rear), and beefing up the anti-roll bars. The steering has been tuned for better response and the brakes upgraded to 330mm ventilated discs at the front, 268mm at the rear (290mm on the estate).

So it’s a reasonably thorough makeover under the skin, a fact that’s signalled when you climb in and find Alcantara and leather seats, lots of red stitching and a suitably sporty take on the 308’s still very small steering wheel.

Our test started in the petrol version, which is predicted to be the most popular choice of GT in the UK. Despite the suspension modifications, the car still rides with impressive composure, particularly at low speeds. The gearbox has a long throw but is precise, and the engine’s tractability from very low revs makes it a very easy car to drive. 

Is it exciting though? Moderately, perhaps, albeit not in the way the old XS models were. For a start, the 308’s weight blunts the performance of what in the 208 GTi is quite a feisty engine. This is most obvious as you climb to the top of the rev range, where rather than delivering fireworks the GT merely waves a sparkler. It’s not that this is a slow car, but nor is it a particularly quick one.

Body lean is well contained, and those suspension upgrades ensure the GT changes direction without hesitation. If only the steering was more consistently weighted; as it is there’s a distinctly sludgy feeling as you pass through a quarter turn of lock.

You can sharpen the throttle response and reduce steering assistance by pressing a Sport button, which also pipes engine sound through the car’s speakers. This sonic silliness is intended to create a more engaging driving experience, but instead makes it sound as though the engine is in the door.

Peugeot has applied the same sound actuator technology to the diesel GT, to even more bizarre effect. From a faint rumble at motorway cruising speeds to a V8-like growl when you put your foot down, it sounds in no way connected to what’s happening under the bonnet.

In fact, the whole character of the diesel, from its automatic gearbox, which doesn’t always respond when you pull its paddle shifts, to the understeer-inducing extra weight over the car’s nose, seem at odds with the go-faster ethos of the GT. If the petrol model is merely warm, this takes it one step down the thermometer, to tepid.

The good news is that if you have fallen for the looks of the GT, but aren’t fussed about the performance, Peugeot also offers a new GT-Line trim level. This nicks the styling and interior upgrades, but sticks with the standard suspension and gives you the full choice of engines.

So you could have, for example, a 1.2-litre, three-cylinder SW estate in GT-Line with a manual gearbox. At £22,345, it’d be a cheaper 308 than either of these GT models – and, I’d wager, a better one too. 

THE FACTS

Peugeot 308 GT 1.6 THP

Tested: 1,598cc, four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, six-speed manual gearbox, front-wheel drive

Price/on sale: £24,095/now

Power/torque: 201bhp @ 6,000rpm/213lb @ 1,750rpm

Acceleration: 0-62mph in 7.5sec

Top speed: 146mph

Fuel economy: 50.4mpg (EU Combined)

CO2 emissions: 130g/km

VED Band: D (£0 first year, £110 thereafter)

Verdict:  Warmed through hatchback is pleasant enough, but lacks the kind of excitement you'd hope for. Expensive, too.