The flavour of France

11:11am Tuesday 26th February 2008

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PEUGEOT'S 307 was voted International Car of the Year in 2002 - a title it stole from under the nose of the revived BMW Mini - and Peugeot managed to sell three million of them across the world.

One of the things the 307 brought to Peugeot was high-rise body architecture, to give the car greater internal space without increasing its footprint - the amount of road space it occupies.

Such efficiency is the name of the game these days, so it's hardly surprising that the new 308, launched in September to replace the 307, follows the same format. It just does it rather better.

You may actually be confused by the 308's arrival because we had a Peugeot 309 years ago and it was made right here in Britain. But when that died in the early '90s, it was replaced by the 306.

In September, Peugeot only gave us five-door versions of the 308 - which, incidentally, was styled in-house. Now there are three-doors too, and I hope Peugeot will take this opportunity to bring us some rip-roaring sporty versions, just as in the past.

When the 309 GTi was launched, the car went largely unnoticed because everyone was focused on the 205 GTi. But the 309 was actually the better car - it's just that it looked clumsy; a bit like a sumo wrestler trying synchronised swimming.

Back to the 308 five-door, though, and, more accurately, the 2.0 HDi turbodiesel we've been driving in SE trim.

Peugeot asks more than £18,000 for this car, plus there were options on top that stuck another £3,000 or so on the bill. That's BMW 3 Series money for a cooking Peugeot hatchback. Someone at Peugeot believes their new car is capable of an awful lot. To be fair though, you can pay a lot less for a 308.

Spec check

Peugeot 308 SE Price: £18,145 0-60mph: 10.2secs Max speed: 129 mph Engine size:2.0 turbodiesel Max power: 136bhp Insurance group: 10 Features: Alloy wheels, climate control, cruise control, CD player

The test car's engine was capable of pumping out a healthy 136bhp and gave 240lbft of torque, which is enough to give it brisk performance through the gears.

The car will rush ahead to a top speed of 129mph, at which point the gendarmes will grab the car back to help boost the national economy should you try it in France.

From nought to 62mph takes 10.2 seconds - and that's pretty near quick enough for most of us. Anyone who gets away more smartly will probably only be waiting for you to play catch-up at the next set of traffic lights.

Keeping it on the pace too much is likely to hit the fuel consumption quite hard, even with the assistance of the test car's six-speed manual gearbox.

Peugeot promises some good figures, with 51.3mpg on the combined cycle, but our car only saw 47mpg.

The whole point of cars like the 308 is that they need to be family-friendly. This one is, as it has plenty of space front and rear and seats that are as good as a favourite club chair.

There's also decent legroom in the rear and masses of headroom thanks to the high roofline.

Even the boot is of a decent size, so most families will find this car fits the bill. I'd probably save cash by having a lesser power output and more pauper-style trim, but this one's certainly worth a second look.

Strong performance in crash tests is a big requirement these days, so you'll hardly be surprised to read that the Peugeot 308 scored five stars in its EuroNCAP crash test for front and side impact.

It got four stars for child protection, too, but pedestrians won't be quite as keen as a three-star rating was all it got for protecting them. Still, that's better than virtually every other car.

For more information, contact Viking Peugeot on 01256 697700.

-Maurice Hardy