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The big news about Peugeot's big new car is that they've got one version down to 109g/km CO2. That doesn't quite get it into London free of charge (the forthcoming hybrid does), but it means you'll only be paying £20 a year in VED. Otherwise, the cars are all 150g/km or under, apart from the 204bhp diesel automatic SW. Which means all apart from the 204bhp SW are £125 or less in annual tax. And all, including the 204bhp SW, fall under the 160g/km company write-down limit.

It's an imposing car to encounter. You can easily imagine it in a diplomatic role, or transporting EC Eurocrats from Brussels to Strasbourg and back. (Why should we pay for them to ride in Mercedes?) Comfort is well catered for at all levels. The rear seat is a pleasant place to stretch your legs in comparison to the black hole of a 407, which had zero forward visibility and made me as a passenger sick.

The 508 should not be compared to the 407 at all. The 607, maybe. The commodious boot of the saloon takes 545 litres of luggage, and the rear seas fold down allowing the car to take 1,511 litre in two seater mode. The station wagon offers 660 litres, rising to 1,865 litres with the seats down and has a load cover that releases at a touch, a luggage net and a dog guard. (Though, of course, the safest way to transport a dog is in a cage.) The dash, seats, driving position and general ambiance are all fine, on a par with a modern Ford's, and the satnav screen is sensibly placed where it can be read at a glance.

Engines kick off with a 120PS 1.6 chain cam petrol, and a turbocharged 156PS 1.6 chain cam petrol that also see service in Citroens and the MINI Cooper S. Diesels are PSA/Citroen/Ford's revised 115PS belt cam 1.6, now with 8 valves instead of 16 and described by Peugeot as a ‘112', which refers it its brake horsepower rather than its PS. Coupled with stop start and PSA's ‘EGC' automated manual transmission, it manages to creep under 110g/km CO2 and qualify for just £20 a year annual tax as well as extremely low BIK for a car of its size. An EC certificated ‘combined' mpg of 58.9 may well translate to more than 50mpg in real life. This is likely to be the UK's best selling, or rather ‘most leased' 508.