Peugeot 2008 Allure 1.6 e-HDI 115 first drive

Two more mainstream manufacturers haul themselves aboard the B segment crossover gravy train this week. One, dealt with elsewhere, is the Renault Captur; the other is the Peugeot 2008, which, as its name suggests, is an SUV-style rehash of the Peugeot 208 supermini launched last year and an indirect replacement for the now-deceased 207 SW. 

With more meat on the bone, the new model is 200mm longer, 250mm wider and substantially taller than its five-door 208 template. Its heftier presence is something of an illusion - the car sits on the same 2538mm wheelbase as the hatchback - but seat-up boot space does swell by an appreciable 65 litres, and there’s a fold-flat 1172-litre capacity beyond that. 

This practical advantage (and the design confetti around it) are the main selling points, since Peugeot has opted not to increase costs or sophistication by plumbing four-wheel drive into its existing platform.

Instead, the 2008 is offered, according to engine and trim (although it was absent from the car tested here) with Grip Control - the selectable traction-control system that sends as much torque as possible to the front wheel with the most grip - and specially developed all-weather mud and snow rubber from Goodyear.  

Otherwise the lineup is familiar: four trim levels (split into Access+, Active, Allure and Feline) with essentially two petrol and two diesel engines.

The latter includes 1.4-litre and varying 1.6-litre outputs - the range-topping 113bhp e-HDI is driven here - while the petrol range is slightly muddled by the forthcoming introduction of a turbocharged version of Peugeot’s new 1.2-litre three-pot.

For now, though, it comes in 82bhp format only, with the older, dirtier 1.6-litre four-cylinder running alongside until the new forced induction motor arrives early next year.

Just last month Peugeot proved that, given the chance, it is capable of wringing a respectable amount of fresh charm from its recycled small car platform. Unfortunately, where the 208 GTI had a feisty, hot hatch dynamic to raise it above the standard model’s faults, the 2008 is (understandably) more deeply mired in them.

On the outside, despite some clever differentiated detailing on the headlights and a bit of extra brawn, the donor car’s awkwardly collated design identity — tediously fussy at the front and flabbily uninspired at the rear — remains unmistakable. Like a flabby bodybuilder, there’s too much vacant skin here with too little to do. 

Flunking the critical crossover eye candy test is made worse by the continuing poor state of affairs inside. The hatchback’s fragmented interior has been transferred wholesale, and while Peugeot claims that the relative position of dash and driver has not changed, the result hardly looks better now you appear to tower above it.

Granted, the hitherto obscured dials are now plainly visible, but all too often getting comfortable means adjusting the steering wheel so low that it lolls in your lap like the head of a sleeping toddler. Behind the front seats there’s an acceptable amount of space for adults, although Peugeot doesn’t seem to have taken much advantage of the elevated roofline that juts so conspicuously from the 2008’s brow.