The 3008 has an interior that’s only averagely spacious for a compact SUV, but it’s decently versatile and easy to berth, and there’s a sense of style and material flourish about it up front that continues to distinguish it from its rivals even midway through the car’s life.
The driver sits at a small, low-mounted steering wheel and behind a high-set digital instrument display, the primary controls being orientated in the ‘i-Cockpit’ layout that Peugeot has been espousing for some time now, which is intended to move the instruments higher on the dashboard (closer to your natural line of sight) and to move the steering wheel in the opposite direction, closer to you. In other models the ergonomic layout can seem awkward and unintuitive - but, having a less recumbent seating position than some of its rangemate, the 3008 makes reasonable sense of the approach. As long as you’re above average height you’ll have little problem seeing the digital instruments over the top of the steering wheel rim; and while it feels strange for a while having that wheel set so low in your lap, familiarity makes you used to it before long.
The car’s digital instruments do look a little contrived, especially in their primary display mode (which gives you a small, gyroscopic-style analogue speedo in addition to a digital one). Alternative modes with conventional instrument clocks can be selected, although in the case of the Hybrid 225 it takes a little bit of fiddling to make a rev counter replace the rather pointless power usage dial that is displayed by default.
The 3008’s infotainment system has a 10in screen in middle- and upper-trim level cars; and while it can be a little bit tricky to navigate by itself, the row of piano key-style menu shortcut buttons immediately underneath it do make a big difference to usability once you’ve discovered them. That the car’s air conditioning controls are on the screen itself can make for a lot of menu-flicking (we always prefer physical and permanent HVAC controls), and it does seem to take several inputs to achieve pretty simple tasks like finding a radio station or muting navigation instructions. There’s no seperate manual input device for the system, so you have to operate it by the fingertip (or can, in some cases, use voice commands). There is, at least, a small ledge at the base of the screen to anchor an outstretched hand on though, and so even the lengthier and more complicated processes aren’t as trying as they might be.
There is quite a bit of difference between the material feel of high-end and entry-level cars, with pricier 3008s getting the more ‘bedroomy’-feeling soft textile trims and cheaper ones sticking with more conventional materials. If you opt for a Hybrid 225 model, mid-level Allure trim is your de-facto entry point for ownership - our test car coming with plenty of satin chrome decoration and a rubberised ‘carbon-effect’ trim whose sensory appeal left a little bit to be desired. In truth, you can find just as many hard and cheap-feeling mouldings around the 3008’s cabin as there are glossier and expensive-feeling ones, but the car just about manages to aggregate a general ambience defined by the latter. On fully-loaded cars, equipment like massage seats and a night vision system would likely conjure their own sense of luxury and sophistication.
The Peugeot 3008 isn’t the most practical family SUV, but the same could be said about plenty of its compact-class rivals. It’s not a car that could comfortably take three adults across the back seats or three kids in childseats, and the boot is a reasonable size but not much bigger than a hatchback might provide. The latter offers eyes for retaining straps and cargo nets, though, as well as a 12-volt power outlet and enough underfloor storage for the car’s charging cable. Loadbay expansion is via 60:40 split-folding seatbacks (the smaller folding portion of which is on the driver’s side) and a separate ski hatch.
