Peugeot 308 SW Review 2023

The new Peugeot 308 SW is a good choice for family buyers who want something with a bit of pizazz rather than an anonymous-looking alternative. Those who appreciate technology, an upmarket cabin feel and comfort will be willing to spend a bit more over something like a Skoda Octavia, too. 

It'll also be great for long journeys thanks to good comfort and refinement, yet its relatively compact size for an estate means it's easy to park and manoeuvre around town.

What's more, a big boot means those looking to carry lots of stuff are well catered for. However, that boot comes at the expense of rear seat space, which if fine if you're intending on carrying kids or average-sized adults but not ideal if you're regularly loading the back up with six-plus footers. Something like a SEAT Leon Estate or Skoda Octavia Estate would be much better in that respect.

For most people's needs we reckon the entry-level Puretech 130 petrol engine is the best choice in Allure trim. It might be the smallest engine but it doesn't need to be worked that hard to get you about, while it'll also be reasonably efficient. Even with the extra 50kg or so the 308 SW is carrying over the hatchback, it'll rarely feel underpowered.

If efficiency matters above all else, though, we'd be looking at one of the plug-in hybrid models. They're more expensive to buy or lease, but may make sense for private buyers because of the potential fuel savings on offer. It's worth doing the sums, though the extra power may be enough to justify it. Of course, fleet buyers will flock to the hybrids in their droves. 

Not every rival to the Peugeot 308 hatchback is available as an estate version, so for that reason the Honda Civic and Mazda 3 are out. As are premium rivals such as the BMW 1 Series, although Mercedes will sell you the style-focused CLA Shooting Brake. 

Really, though, the 308 SW's key rivals are the estate versions of the Ford Focus, VW Golf and SEAT Leon, along with the Renault Megane Sport Tourer and Toyota Corolla Touring Sports. There's also the Hyundai i30 Tourer which isn't as style-led but is more affordable, while the Kia Proceed is definitely style-led and offers more space than you might expect. The latest Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer (which is closely related to the 308) is not yet in showrooms, however. 

Peugeot has spend several years trying to convince us it's a semi-premium brand, sitting a class above its Citroen and Vauxhall stablemates. Recent products have done a good job of doing so, and the Peugeot 308 SW continues that trend.

Fit and finish throughout the cabin is on a par with the latest VW Golf estate, which some materials actually feeling more plus than the German rival. The door grab handles feel solid, there's very few scratchy plastics and lots of squidgy trim, along with posh suede-effect and leather elements on the dash and doors. It certainly feels that bit more high-end than the class average. 

Granted, poke around lower reaches of the cabin (such as the door pockets and glovebox lid) and you will find harder, less tactile plastics. But accepting what the Peugeot 308 costs, this really isn't a big deal. 

Whichever version of the Peugeot 308 SW you go for you'll find a bright 10-inch touchscreen in the centre of the dash. Paired with an identically-sized digital dial display on all versions, you also get a simple voice control system on base models. 

We'd avoid the base Active Premium model, largely because you don't get the little second touchscreen below the main infotainment for the useful shortcut widgets. There's no sat-nav, either, which on other variants brings live traffic updates and speed camera alerts. Furthermore the voice control is more advanced from Allure spec above, and can be activated by saying 'OK Peugeot'. 

Allure trim also gives you useful details such as USB sockets in the rear as well as the front. Wireless phone charging is an option, though it's standard on Allure Premium and above, as is wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (it's wired on the two base trims). 

The only further upgrade to the infotainment system is the stereo. All models get a six-speaker sound system, but plump for GT Premium and you get a Focal Premium surround sound system with additional speakers. It sounds pretty punchy, and is also optional on GT trim. 

In terms of exterior dimensions - for those that aren't over-endowed with parking space - the Peugeot 308 SW is 4636mm long, 1852mm wide excluding mirrors and 1450mm tall. That's around 270mm longer than the 308 hatch, but a little shorter than a Ford Focus estate.

We'll start with boot space first given thats kind of what estate cars are about, and there's bad news on this front: the new 308 SW's boot is actually smaller than the model it replaces, in capacity terms at least. It's down to 608 litres, from an unusually generous 660 litres of the old car - although with the plug-in hybrid models sapping the underfloor storage due to their battery packs that figure drops further to 548 litres. 

Regardless, the fact that the standard 308SW's boot capacity figure begins with a six still means it's among the roomier cars in this class - you'll have no trouble with three of those giant, multi-week holiday suitcases, while a trip to that well-known Swedish furniture store should be no sweat. What's more, the capacity grows to 1634 litres when you fold the seats down, which is done easily via levers in the boot and allows a 40/20/40 split. With side hooks, nets and (on non-PHEVs) two separate underfloor storage compartments, it's all good back there. 

Up front, too, there's plenty of headroom and decent cabin width, meaning you won't need to have an elbow war to access the centre armrest. The i-Cockpit driving position isn't suitable for everyone, though - the very tall will find they have to fix the wheel unnaturally close to their legs to fully see the dial display. We wish Peugeot wouldn't mount the pedals so close to the driver, as it would allow long legs to stretch out better. 

More grumbles begin when you jump in the back, though. The old 308 SW has a ludicrously large boot but barely any more rear seat space than a supermini. Peugeot has traded a bit of the former for the latter, but rear legroom in particular still lags behind cars such as the Skoda Octavia estate - and in fact sits below the general class average, meaning six footers will have their knees wedged into the seat back. 

Headroom is at least a bit better than the hatchback on account of the straighter roof, but it's still not brilliant. That's a shame, because we hoped for a bigger improvement. The rear seats themselves are comfortable, though, so smaller adults and children will be fine, while there isn't a big lump in the floor so the middle seat is fairly usable. Of course there's ISOFIX points back there for mounting child seats, too. 

There's good news when it comes to storage at least: the new 308 is the first Peugeot of the 21st century where they've actually bothered to move the fuse box for right-hand drive cars, meaning it doesn't take up half the glovebox. There's decent door bins and a cubby below the opening centre armrest, too. 

Peugeot has kept the engine choice of the 308 SW nice and simple - there's one (rather good) petrol, a frugal diesel and a couple of plug-in hybrids. Don't expect a hot version to rival a Focus ST estate, but there could well be a fully electric variant in future. 

The entry-level engine in the 308 SW is the familiar 1.2-litre turbo three-cylinder Puretech 130 engine with, you guessed it, 130PS and 230Nm of torque. It's used in a wide variety of Stellantis models, and those worried it's not up to the job of a family estate might be surprise to hear you can also get it in to 5008 seven-seat SUV.

Thanks to that meaty torque figure you don't need to rev the nuts off it to get anywhere, but if you do it's got a rorty and charismatic (but not too intrusive) engine note. It's our favourite engine to drive in the 308 SW, helped by it being the lightest version (aiding the handling) and pairing pretty well with the eight-speed automatic gearbox. 

We also had a brief go in the 1.5-litre BlueHDI diesel engine. It has the same power as the petrol but 300Nm of torque, yet different gearing means it's actually slower from 0-60mph (10.9 seconds plays 9.9 seconds for the petrol. It's still punchy enough, while it's not overly noisy for a diesel and will likely deliver at least 20% better MPG than the petrol model. It's a shame, then, that so few people are expected to buy the diesel. 

Then comes the two plug-in models - the Hybrid 180 and Hybrid 225 - both of which remain front wheel drive and combined a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine with a 110PS electric motor. All that changes between the two is the petrol engine gets a higher state of tune in the 225PS variant. 

We've only driven the 225PS model so far, which is pretty good, but has some foibles. Outright performance is much stronger, with 0-62mph completed in 7.6 seconds, while the decent output of the electric motor means you can accelerate fairly strongly or take it up to motorway speeds without waking the engine. Cruising refinement at low or high speed is really good, too. 

However it suffers from the same problem that inflicts many PHEVs, namely that when you clog the throttle to quickly gain speed you have to wait longer than the non-hybrid models before the gearbox, engine and electric motor have worked out what to do and deliver the goods. That crucial second or two can be the difference between a safe and a dangerous overtake, for example.

All 308s use the same eight-speed automatic gearbox with paddles behind the wheel for manual shifts. The changes are smooth, and while it's a bit slow to react in the hybrid it delivers fairly swift kickdown in the petrol and diesel models. The manual response is nowhere near as fast as a dual-clutch gearbox, however. 

The Peugeot 308 SW is adept at keeping its occupants isolated from wind, road and engine noise, and while the suspension does get a little noisy on pothole-laden tarmac it's good for this size and price. 

The three-cylinder Puretech 130 doesn't vibrate through the controls like similar engines of old, either. And while it can be heard when you start revving out, the thrummy little growl is actually quite appealing. Even the diesel doesn't clatter unduly unless you really rev it, which is rather pointless anyway. 

The four-cylinder hybrids are, of course, the smoothest of the lot, particularly when in electric mode with no gearchanges or engine noise to worry about. Once the engine does kick in it's pretty quiet under normal throttle inputs, but keep your foot pinned into the top of the rev range and the hum becomes a touch boomy. 

The 308 SW should be no less safe than the regular Peugeot 308 hatchback. And while neither have been tested by Euro NCAP as yet we've no reason to believe they wouldn't perform strongly. 

There's safety aids aplenty in the Peugeot 308, with standard automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection. It's worth noting, though, that only Allure trim and above gets a slightly more advance system that works better at night and can detect cyclists. 

Also standard across the range is lane assist, driver drowsiness detection and cruise control with a speed limiter, plus speed limit recognition. Allure Premium models and above get adaptive cruise control which also operates at low speed, alongside rear-cross traffic alert and blind spot monitoring. Top-spec GT Premium versions come with lane positioning assist for (in theory) more relaxing long journeys.

The new Peugeot 308 SW has just arrived on the market so it's impossible for us to accurately assess its reliability. Much of the technology is new, although the engines are all familiar as they have been used elsewhere in Peugeot, Citroen, DS and Vauxhall models. 

Peugeot didn't finish all that highly in the most recent Honest John Satisfaction Index, so it's difficult to say how it'll perform in the long-term. Having said that, modern cars don't generally cause as many issues as they used to, while the 308's engines are all well-proven by now. 

Insurance group data for the Peugeot 308 SW has yet to be released, but we've no reason to believe it'll be dramatically more expensive to insure than the previous-generation model. Expect the plug-in hybrids to be the most expensive on account of their higher list prices, with the 1.2-litre petrol being the cheapest to insure. 

The Peugeot 308 SW's range of efficient engines mean it shouldn't break the bank when it comes to road tax. Of course the hybrids save you money in this respect, but that doesn't offset the higher purchase price. 

The first year rate for the 1.2-litre Puretech petrol is £190, rising to the £165 flat rate for the years following. The diesel model reduces that first-year rate to £170 because of its lower CO2 emissions. 

The plug-in hybrids are noticeably cheaper in the first year, with both commanding a £10 annual rate, rising to the £165 flat rate after. We'd avoid the GT Premium model with the 225 Hybrid engine, though, as it just creeps over the £40,000 mark in list price terms, meaning you'll get clobbered for an extra £355 a year in tax for five years. 

Even the base model of the Peugeot 308 SW comes with a decent roster of kit, but we reckon you'll want to splash out for Allure or Allure Premium trim - those will be more desirable on the used market and that should reflect in leasing costs. 

Base Active Premium trim comes with power-folding mirrors, 16-inch alloys, 'EcoLED' headlights and LED rear lights, auto lights and wipers, rear parking sensors, the full infotainment suite and auto emergency braking. 

Allure models upgrade the wheel size to 17-inches, and introduce various other styling detail upgrades. You also get an AQS 3 air quality system, front parking sensors, tinted windows, a reversing camera, a drive mode selector, part synthetic leather trim, ambient lighting, high beam assist, upgraded LED running lights and sat-nav with live traffic updates. PHEV models get remote pre-heating and cooling, too. 

Allure Premium trim adds the Drive Assist Pack with adaptive cruise control, rear-cross traffic alert and blind spot detection, while keyless entry and start, wireless phone charging and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto also features.

Stepping up to GT trim nets you an enhanced air quality system, 3D digital instruments, a heated steering wheel, the Driver Sport Pack, a green stitched leather steering wheel, Alcantara and faux-leather trim, black headlining, aluminium door sills, exterior styling upgrades, 18-inch alloys, full Matrix LED headlights and upgraded 'Claw Effect' LED rear lights. 

Top-of-the-line GT Premium trim further adds Lane Positioning Assist, two-tone 18-inch alloys, a 360-degree parking camera and self-parking aid, an electric tailgate, upgraded front seats with electric adjustment on the driver's side and heating and massaging for both front seats, electric lumbar adjustment and a Focal Premium sound system.