New Peugeot 508 GT Line 2019 Test Drive Review.

The second-generation Peugeot 508 comes from a European brand with plenty of pedigree for fine-handling, mid-sized, midmarket saloons. The 405 and 406 delivered alternative French design appeal and critically acclaimed dynamics, while the earlier and larger 504 and 505 were often given ‘world-class’ billing among saloons of a similar price.

Peugeot wouldn’t be Peugeot if hadn’t come back to a car like this, having turned its hand to SUVs, crossovers and commercial vehicles these past few years.

When the covers came off the 508 at Geneva this year, it became evident that the conservative design of its predecessor wasn’t being repeated. Like many rivals, Peugeot has seen the way the wind has blown for modern saloon design and has stirred a welcome dose of eye-catching, curvaceous style into the 508’s recipe. And having always offered three-box saloons with conventional boots, it has acknowledged modern preferences in another way by switching to a hatchback bodystyle.

So comprehensive are Peugeot’s changes that this latest 508 and its big-boned predecessor can barely be described as being related. The rear light bar is borrowed from the brand’s Instinct shooting brake concept, while the LED ‘tusks’ in the front bumper are cutting-edge at this price.

There are frameless doors, chrome exhaust tips and wheels that properly fill their arches, and the silhouette is that of a “two-and-a-half-box fastback”, as design director Gilles Vidal puts it. If you appreciate the look of Audi’s A5 Sportback, your eyes will be drawn to the 508 – and not simply because of the complex rear three-quarter panels that necessitated stamping methods generally the preserve of sports cars.

Despite its D-segment sensibilities, the 508 is conveniently sized, being some 80mm shorter and 51mm lower than before and much smaller of footprint than either the Ford Mondeo or Skoda Superb. The payoff is a tighter turning circle than that of most family hatches, despite the athletic proportions.

The new car is now 70kg lighter on average, partly due to a new steel monocoque but mainly because it’s built on the stiffer EMP2 platform that was developed at colossal expense and is shared with the 3008 and 5008 crossovers. Giving the old PF3 underpinnings the boot also bodes well for handling.

Our test car uses the PSA Group’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel, which drives the front wheels through an eight-speed automatic gearbox. It’s offered with either 161bhp or 174bhp, while a 1.5-litre diesel, available in manual only, will backstop the line-up with 129bhp and CO2 emissions of just 98g/km.

A high proportion of fleet sales means as few as one in 10 508s are expected to drink petrol, but those cars will do so courtesy of a 1.6-litre four-pot turbo with 178bhp or 221bhp. If the range sounds conservative, Peugeot says this platform was designed for versatility and that mild- and plug-in hybrid variants – the latter with an electrically driven rear axle – will arrive next year with no adverse effect on cabin or the admittedly modest boot capacity.

In chassis terms, there are no surprises here. The front axle is suspended by MacPherson struts while the rear uses a multi-link design. Adaptive dampers with modes ranging from Eco to Sport are standard issue on top-of-the-line GT models, but the rank and file make do with a passive set-up. Our GT test car rides on 19in wheels with modest 235/40 tyres at each corner.

The same defining neat sense of compactness that adds to the appeal of the 508’s exterior comes across quite plainly as you acclimatise to the car’s cabin. There isn’t the sheer width you’ll find in some cars in this class, though – the result being that while the 508 seems to sit within the lane of a typical UK A-road with a bit of space to breathe, it’s probably not a car in which to try to put three child seats across the back bench or in which to seat three adults in the rear.

Adults occupying the outer rear chairs won’t find masses of head and knee room, either, although there will be plenty for a typical family of four. The Peugeot’s boot, meanwhile, is about 10% to 20% smaller than you might find elsewhere for your money, although it’s still on a par with the saloon class average for volume.

Anyone who has driven one of Peugeot’s latest generation of cars – anything since the 3008 of 2016 – will recognise the same kind of materially rich, nicely alternative ambience in here. There is, though, perhaps a little bit too much glossy black plastic on the 508’s centre stack and transmission tunnel, and a few too many harder, cheaper plastic mouldings up high and down low around the cabin, to convince you that you’re sitting in something that’s as expensively hewn as an Audi, Mercedes-Benz or Volkswagen.

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