Peugeot 508 SW Allure 2.0 BlueHDi 150 first drive

The facelifted Peugeot 508: a traditional volume-brand family car of the kind we’ll do almost anything these days not to buy.

While this car’s market segment shrinks slowly towards obscurity, the niches in which its new alternatives reside – from ‘compact premium’ hatches and saloons, through crossovers and compact SUVs, to executive options like the new Jaguar XE, even down to extra-practical C-segment estates – have become the fastest-growing and most important in Europe. 

Totally surrounded and outmanoeuvred, the “Ford Mondeo market” probably won’t exist in another decade. For the time being, though, this once-great backwater of the industry must still be worth investing in – which is good news while it continues to be populated with cars of real substance.

This year brings an all-new Ford Mondeo and an all-new Volkswagen Passat. The Vauxhall Insignia was refreshed less than a year ago – and now, three years after its introduction, we’re getting an updated Peugeot 508.

Exterior styling changes consist chiefly of new bumpers, new headlights (full LED clusters are now standard on upper model grades), a squarer bonnet and a stronger, classier-looking chrome grille. 

On the inside, PSA’s familiar 7-inch touchscreen multimedia system has been fitted, freeing up space on the centre console for more oddment storage. New gadgets on higher-end models include a heads-up display, blind spot monitors and a reversing camera: hardly ground-breaking stuff.

Peugeot would have better spent that gadget budget on better-quality cabin plastics at low levels and around the steering column, and on more tactile primary points of contact than the cheap-feeling gearshift paddles you get in automatic models. Still, the 508’s cabin is roomy, comfortable and – for the most part – quite well appointed and finished.

The headline additions under the bonnet consist of two new 2.0-litre ‘BlueHDi’ turbodiesel engines, the most important of which gives the 508 a competitive 148bhp and 273lb ft of torque and, in the case of the saloon, makes for sub-110g/km CO2 emissions.

We tried the new engine in a 508 SW; the estate bodystyle accounting for more 508 sales across the continent than the four-door. The engine was refined at cruising revs, if a bit booming and breathless at higher crank speeds, and it offered a decent balance of economy (low-40s-mpg on a fairly steep mountain route) and performance.

But soft throttle response, basic intractability and long gearing affected drivability at times – and the flaccid shift quality of the six-speed manual gearbox didn’t impress.

Certain versions of the 508 do a better impression of a premium product on the ride and handling front – but unfortunately, not the versions that matter.

Buy a £30k, 197bhp, 2.2-litre HDi ‘GT’-badged car and you’ll get an upgraded chassis, with double-wishbone suspension up front, that's tuned to deliver pleasingly fluent and precise steering, a closely controlled supple ride and decent, if slightly nose-lead, cornering balance. There again, that means the best 508 is BMW 320d money.