Perth City Peugeot invited club members to a special preview of the new 408 PHEV.
Our friendly sales specialist Frank Majetic confessed to being new to the brand. He’s a previous Subaru salesman, but nothing much was going to trip him up on this brand new 408. He is a great ambassador for Peugeot, a keen communicator and made us all feel welcome.
We prodded and poked at the 408. It’s a pre-production car, meaning it might differ very slightly in trim and standard fittings from our settled specification. Or it might stay exactly the same. Anyway, it’s there for drive purposes and order-creating, and will eventually be sold as demonstrator stock.
Here’s what we thought:
Neville Grimson writes, “This was my first time behind the wheel of an electric vehicle, and if it was not for other traffic it initially felt like I was in an animated not real scenario. I enjoyed it. Thanks to our host Frank who looked after us very well”.
Peter Casserly scratched his chin and thought, “Hmmm…that’s not a real window behind the passenger door at all. It’s a handsome thing, gosh darn. And I love the natty 3D instrument display. Headroom’s good front and rear, and there’s noticeably more legroom in the rear than my 508. The extra height makes it easy to get in and out of. Good ride. Love the idea of driving to work and back without using the petrol motor. A level of easy familiarity, being so similar to the 508 in many ways. Terrific drivetrain”.
Bruce Turner writes, “A fearless few stalwarts from PCC gathered in Vic Park on Valentines Night to get a glimpse (and quick drive) of the new hybrid 408. An elegant car at first glance, and a great feeling car to drive, notwithstanding, in my case, the short distance up and down Berwick Rd and environs. It has acres of torque as indeed do many hybrid designs which combine electric and petrol output when put to “higher duties”. Having just driven my brother’s hybrid MG to Albany and back I was somewhat prepared for this drive. The 408 steering was lighter than I’d expected and handling was excellent from my limited opportunity to test that dimension. Also very flat through curves, both of these characteristics a pleasant surprise in a car weighing a skerrick north of 1700kg. They are saying it will return an overall fuel figure of somewhere near 2 litres per 100km. To me this is a consumption number from fairytale dreamland, however advertising laws being what they are, we are assuming Peugeot won’t be telling any identifiable fibs on this issue! Overall, on this quick inspection and drive, an impressive car , which we are told will be in the $73k bracket or thereabouts. The model is yet to be released so our little group were privileged to get this preview”.
Mark Hort liked it too, and wrote, “It’s a dangerous thing to attend the unveiling of an alluring sleek new Peugeot 408 PHEV on Valentine’s day.
On first view the 20″ rims came as a surprise but they contributed to a very smooth ride. Fitting in the driver’s seat is a big plus being above 6′. I also comfortably sat in the back seat but discovered that they lack a massage function available up front.
Instrumentation was logical and the driver’s controls wrapped around me comfortably. Having the local speed zone published on the dashboard is a wonderful idea where local authorities enjoy applying a bingo arrangement to ever changing speed zones as you progress through urban areas.
Having previously driven hybrid vehicles, I anticipated a noticeable transition from electric to combustion and back to electric. No transition was evident and I suspect that I would need to pay more attention to the dashboard to distinguish what was powering my drive. The gear selection was novel and I had to pull out my vehicle transition experiences to select ‘park’.
Sadly, the test run was too short to poke and prod every setting in the vehicle. However, we thank Perth City Peugeot for the introductory experience, along with an acknowledgment to Frank for forgoing Valentines to facilitate our speed date with the new wheels. It would be brilliant to renew the acquaintance at greater leisure and hear the 408 murmur more sweet entreaties”.