Peugeot’s handsome mid-sized saloon and wagon get a new face and improved interior
Peugeot’s freshly chiselled, extra-stylish, premium-feeling assault on the bottom end of the European executive car market – manifested as it is by the current Peugeot 508 – has now been romping on since 2018.In its best years, it made the 508 one of Europe’s top ten best-selling junior executive saloons, competing – at least a little bit – with the mighty BMW 3-Series, Mercedes C-Class, Audi A4 and more. Crucially, it’s still romping. While rivals like the Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Insignia, Toyota Avensis, Renault Laguna and more have long since given up the good fight that mainstream brands have been variously holding up, for decades, against the advancing BMW, Mercedes, Volvo – and now Tesla – Peugeot’s commitment to present itself as a credible rival to the established premium marques continues. It’s doing that through a lineup of ‘fastback’ saloon and ‘SW’ estate models that’s been consolidated and simplified for the car’s mid-life facelift, and that now majors on fleet-market-intended plug-in hybrid powertrains.The car’s former more powerful ICE petrol and diesel engines have been taken off the UK price list, leaving only the big-selling Plug-in Hybrid 225, the 1.2-litre turbo Puretech petrol, and the range-topping 508 Peugeot Sport Engineered Plug-in Hybrid4 360 to choose between. Below that 508 PSE performance hybrid, the car now comes in just Allure and GT trim levels, and has a slimmed down range of options.
