RE: Peugeot 308 GTI: Review

[chrispj]

Any chance of an estate version Dan?

[the_stoat]

jjr1 said:

I drove a 308 diesel hire car recently and absolutely loved it. Very comfortable and reasonable fun for a basic low powered hatch.

The only weird thing about it was the impossibly small steering wheel? It really is the strangest thing !

So one of these 308's with a decent hot engine sounds brill !!!

Me too, I was really surprised by it. They seem to have delivered compliant comfortable suspension as opposed to the current obsession with 'sports' suspension that causes strange bits of me to wobble.

[blearyeyedboy]

tonyb1968 said:

The 170bhp per ltr from a 1.6ltr engine.
OMG, the engine will implode after 10k miles, it will drink fuel and oil, it will be unreliable etc, oh please, all the RCZ R owners I know with this engine fitted have no excessive oil or fuel (well fuel if you want to have a bit of fun) issues, the only 1 issue is 1 of the guys out in Germany who has put 37k miles on his R in the first year, a coil pack started playing up, considering that most of his driving is in excess of 130mph on the Autobahn and he likes keeping the car near its 155mph limit, thats not bad, oh and he has no oil consumption issues either (and still pulls over 20mpg!).

Good points, well made (as well as your others). This engine has been significantly beefed up from those that powered early DS3's around...

In addition, that engine will weigh less than equivalent 2 litre engines used by rivals. When you're trying to make a car handle well, reducing weight and directional inertia around your front wheels has to be a good thing.

Dan: Thanks for the reply. Very interesting... I'm very keen to have a go if I get a chance.
No, it's not an Exige but a decent 5 door daily driver that can be fun without looking like I've bought a bodykit from eBay has a lot of appeal.

Edited by blearyeyedboy on Friday 2nd October 11:52

[RoverP6B]

BoyRacerChaser said:

God I hate Peugeot's they are terrible cars.... they just have no idea how to make a quality car that lasts. After 30k miles the gear stick feels like you are stirring porridge and the car is beginning to fall to pieces...

Well, my wife's 205s were flimsy, but not long ago I was given a lift in a late 406 estate, diesel, which was impressively refined and rattle-free after 240,000 miles. Made me think I might fancy one, albeit with the petrol V6, as a shed. It was much nicer than a likewise diesel-powered (same engine?) Jaguar X-type I got a ride in around the same time.

blearyeyedboy said:

That engine will weigh less than equivalent 2 litre engines used by rivals. When you're trying to make a car handle well, reducing weight and directional inertia around your front wheels has to be a good thing.

Not necessarily. Heavily beefed-up internals, heavier pistons, bigger intercooler, bigger turbo, there's probably sod all difference in the end... and I'd still rather have a 3-litre N/A six-pot.

[jontbone]

blearyeyedboy said:

jontbone said:

I think the numbers could be wrong too, the 0-60 calculator I use has been pretty accurate to date

Sorry, but outside of a certain range it under-estimates 0-60 times for very powerful or very light cars.

In a set range, such as for a Mk5 Golf GTi or BMW 330i, it works very well. But once FWD cars become more powerful it loses accuracy. For example, it would suggest that a new Civic Type R should take 5.06 seconds to get to 60mph. Once you reach the limits of how much a tyre can grip, it's harder to go quicker in a FWD car. In fairness to its creator though, he acknowledges as such on his website.

I say this because we shouldn't beat up Peugeot for not matching the figures given by a calculator that wasn't really designed with modern powerful FWD hatches in mind.

Back to the 308 GTi...

I'm trying to pitch where it sits in a group of hot hatches. I'm picturing something with similar comfort to a Focus ST, but with more poke and a proper LSD. Is that a fair reflection, Dan?

I'd be quite interested in one now that my current steed is ageing. Attract very little attention, have some fun, have 5 doors to keep it useful for family duties. I could be sold to, I'm sure.

(Edited for rubbish punctuation)

Edited by blearyeyedboy on Friday 2nd October 10:47

Thanks Bleary, that's good to know, I've found it very accurate to a point, but thats probably because I've used it mostly on RWD/4WD, or with FWD cars with 200bhp or less.
According to the calculator an ST170 should be some kind of rocketship, of course we know it's pretty far from that!

Regardless of the numbers, I rather like the sound of this new GTI, it's about time Peugeot created something that's cooking, it looks like a good alternative if you find the Lairy looks of the Civic Type R a bit much and don't fancy the Ford

[j_s14a]

DoctorX said:

That is the most hideous dashboard ever and would be enough to stop me buying one (or a 208) no matter what it drove like.

Nowhere near as bad as the industrial looking dash of the Nissan GTR.

[RoverP6B]

At least the GT-R doesn't put its steering wheel rim right between the driver's eyes and the dials.

[DoctorX]

RoverP6B said:

At least the GT-R doesn't put its steering wheel rim right between the driver's eyes and the dials.

However, I'd be very happy to own a GTR even if it had a 308 dashboard.

[RoverP6B]

I'd rather have a 308 with a GT-R dash than a GT-R with a 308 dash... that stupid little wheel and being unable to read the dials clearly would drive me bonkers no matter what car it was in!

[EricE]

Engine sounds like something out of a videogame.

[blearyeyedboy]

RoverP6B said:

blearyeyedboy said:

That engine will weigh less than equivalent 2 litre engines used by rivals. When you're trying to make a car handle well, reducing weight and directional inertia around your front wheels has to be a good thing.

Not necessarily. Heavily beefed-up internals, heavier pistons, bigger intercooler, bigger turbo, there's probably sod all difference in the end... and I'd still rather have a 3-litre N/A six-pot.

Whether you'd prefer a six pot is a matter of taste, of course. I tried a little Google Fu to see if you had a point, and it's surprisingly hard to fathom out. I could get stats of 120kg for the EP6CDTX variant of the 1.6 Prince engine, as found in the RCZR, and 194kg for a BMW N54. What's hard to determine though is what's included in those weights.

TL; DR? I'm still not sure but suspect I'm still right, though I concede there's a lack of clarity and hard stats. Happy to be shown differently if anyone thinks I'm wrong though.

[RoverP6B]

One of the lighter V6s made, the Rover KV6, weighed 154kg in 2.5ltr 190bhp form, 'fully dressed' i.e. all ancillaries fitted. This - http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/engineweights.html - lists some supposedly lighter V6s, but the figures given are so improbably low that I'm guessing they're for bare engines...

[stuckmojo]

Are people really spending their own money to buy this instead of - well - anything else?

The price is total comedy.

[drdino]

blearyeyedboy said:

Whether you'd prefer a six pot is a matter of taste, of course. I tried a little Google Fu to see if you had a point, and it's surprisingly hard to fathom out. I could get stats of 120kg for the EP6CDTX variant of the 1.6 Prince engine, as found in the RCZR, and 194kg for a BMW N54. What's hard to determine though is what's included in those weights.

TL; DR? I'm still not sure but suspect I'm still right, though I concede there's a lack of clarity and hard stats. Happy to be shown differently if anyone thinks I'm wrong though.

EP6DTX:
Weight*: 119.65

• Weight with oil and clutch without accessories

[cayman-black]

I really like these , they seem too have a flair that is missing in the german cars. Fully specced with a good discount very nice i think.

[blearyeyedboy]

drdino said:

EP6DTX:
Weight*: 119.65

• Weight with oil and clutch without accessories

Good to know, thanks. But what counts as "accessories"? (I'm guessing the turbo's included in the weight, for example?)

[tonyb1968]

As Peugeot have now added the full spec to their brochure, the 308 GTI comes fully loaded as standard (as I suspected), so 28k (no doubt a bit of discount available on that) isnt too bad.
A couple of options, met and pearl paint, 525 & 675 quid, Panoramic glass roof with electric blind at 500 quid.
Some additions on the audio front, cd player will add 120 quid, they also have an sos system which is around 300 quid more, oh and the 2 tone paint job, everything else is standard.

When I say everything, i mean stuff like sat nav, front and rear parking sensors with reversing camera, optional extra's on all the competition.
Looks good to me, just have to see what its like against the competition now.