It has been a while since a new article was posted on this blog, largely due to the fact that my regular daytime job (which I require for a stable income) took a lot of my time, also after working hours. However, with the holiday period coming up I’ll be able to invest more time into writing and car reviewing, something I hope everyone reading the articles appreciates. Over the course of the past months, view count numbers have been growing steadily, which is great and a real motivating factor for me.

Now on to the topic of today’s article, which is the brand new Peugeot 508, which was released to to the world around three weeks ago. For readers from the United States; the 508 is a mid sized sedan/hatchback/estate which competes with cars like the Volkswagen Passat and the Ford Fusion / Mondeo.

The car arrives in interesting times. In different European countries, the D-segment, home of the 508, is not going very well. Sales are down for multiple consecutive years, and the customers staying are almost all lease companies and no private buyers. That is probably why Peugeot thought it wise to change their approach to the segment and position their offering differently. They did so by unveiling a sporty yet elegant design with more resemblance to a five door coupe (like the Volkswagen Arteon and the Audi A5) than a traditional four door sedan.

Press critics until now have been very positive about this new angle of the French carmaker. Almost everyone seems to like the design language and the overall package Peugeot is now offering. Personally, I specifically appreciate the more sporty design seen on the GT-Line variant on the pictures in this article, it has been a while since Peugeot chose for a muscular and sportive design and I think they changed direction with the 508 in a very good way. Apart from that, it is also a very welcome change to the loads and loads of SUVs and crossovers we saw recently flooding the markets.

Interior wise Peugeot opts for a new iteration of its ‘I-Cockpit’, which revolves around a digital instrument cluster, smaller and lower positioned steering wheel, and control switches aimed towards the driver. All details have been executed with the best materials and nicest eye for detail. The looks of it are not as clean as, par example, an Audi A4, but it looks almost as high quality and is a lot more refreshing.

Apart from the five door liftback there will also be an estate, called 508 SW. From the side it looks a bit like the 308 SW, but the rear is a lot stronger and, to my opinion, better looking. Engine options for now consist of petrol and diesel powertrains, from 130hp to 225. Price wise Peugeot is kicking things off with special introduction version, which are not the cheapest and could be obtained for prices around €50k. The current baseline goes for €38k (in the Netherlands) which gets the mentioned diesel with a manual 6-speed gearbox, front wheel drive, and the Active trim. This trim has the main niceties of the interior but moves on smaller wheels (16″) and swaps the ‘sabretooth’ LED lights on the front for aluminium strips.