FULL REVIEW: Peugeot’s 208 turbodiesel is our long-distance champion

Words Chris Chilton | Photography Sam Chick

• Full road trip review of Peugeot’s diesel 208
• Just 99bhp but light weight and agile
• The most economical 208 you can buy

We’re on day two of our cross-country Peuge0t 208 test from Land’s End to Edinburgh, and stage two means car two. This morning we stopped at Robins and Day, a busy Peugeot dealership south-west of Birmingham, to swap stage one’s e-208 for a diesel BlueHDi (this road trip was undertaken before the spring 2020 Coronavirus lockdown).

The market’s drift from diesel means demand won’t be huge, but in keeping with its ‘a 208 for everyone’ mantra, Peugeot still reckons it’s important to offer one. And there is only one: a 1.5-litre turbo developing a fairly modest 99bhp, but more on that figure later.

You can mate the diesel motor with any of the five trims from basic Active Premium to top-spec GT Premium. Our mid-spec Allure Premium lacks the 205 GTi-aping black wheelarch trims of yesterday’s e-208 GT, but the squat stance, wide track and eye-catching street presence is carried over intact.

A look inside the new 208

Inside, you still get the smart textured, carbon-look trim, and the 3D-effect i-Cockpit instrument binnacle, which is standard on all but entry-level Active Premium and Allure trims.

If you haven’t driven a recent Peugeot, the driving position required by the i-Cockpit can seem a little odd. Instead of peering at the instruments through the steering wheel, you sit with the wheel lower than normal and the instruments visible above it. It doesn’t take long to acclimatise, and once we’ve joined Birmingham rush hour, we don’t give it a second thought.

VIDEO: a guided tour of the 208’s classy cabin

Instead, we’re thinking about the effect the introduction of Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ) will have on some older cars we see. The CAZ is part of Birmingham’s plan to clean up air quality and become carbon neutral by 2030. Drivers of older, more polluting cars will be charged £8 to travel into the city centre.

The CAZ was expected to go live from July 1 2020, but an initial six-month delay to ensure the government’s online vehicle checker was able to correctly identify chargeable vehicles has now been extended until at least June 2021. Not that we’d have been hit with a bill. Modern clean diesels meeting Euro 6 emissions standards will be exempt, and ours emits just 101g/km CO2 in its simplest configuration.

diesel: best mpg, lightest too

We leave Birmingham’s morning commuters to their daily grind and escape north towards our overnight stop up in Cumbria and the Lake District. But traffic news filtering through the 208’s speakers about a jam on the bottom of the M6 northbound gives us the perfect excuse to dive off-route. So we head up to the Peak District to investigate this diesel 208’s surprising spec secret.

That secret is its kerbweight. Diesel engines were traditionally heavier than petrol engines, but this 1090kg 208 actually weighs the same as the PureTech 100 models, and only the most basic, non-turbocharged petrol 208 weighs less. Which casts a new light on that 99bhp output. Because it’s not really power that matters, but power-to-weight. Or, in the HDi’s case, torque-to-weight, as it makes a healthy 184lb ft and from just 1750rpm too. 

STRETCHING THE 208’S LEGS

As we head into the Peaks, we swap dual carriageways for A- and B-roads, and flat terrain for some occasionally punishing climbs, like spectacular Winnats Pass, a 28 per cent incline that cuts through limestone ridges. But the HDi’s relatively solid 184lb ft of twist helps compress those gradients without the need to constantly hunt for a lower gear. This 208’s fitted with a six-speed manual transmission – the only gearbox available with the diesel engine – and though the lever and its throw seem a little long, the change is light and precise.

And it’s fun to be driving a car with a manual gearbox, even one with as few sporting pretensions as this. The HDi’s 10.2sec 0-62mph time clearly won’t win it many traffic-light drag races but a big-hearted mid-range pull means it feels far punchier in real life situations, and the energetic steering and low kerbweight impart a real sense of agility as we pick our way through the north of the twisting Peaks and then west through Oldham and back to the bustle of the motorway network.

On the M6 for the day’s final stint, we stretch the diesel’s legs. It’s a great cruiser, thanks to low interior noise levels and the tall sixth gear made possible by the car’s feathery weight and a healthy torque output. And that gearing means we’re barely sipping from the 41-litre fuel tank, returning an easy real-world 55mpg against a combined figure of 63.5-73.6mpg, depending on spec.

time to unwind

An hour later we’re sipping Malbec in Another Place, The Lake, a stunning boutique hotel in the north-eastern Lakes, gazing out of the window to Ullswater lake, which is hidden from view by a night as black as a 20-year old diesel’s tailpipe. 

Predictably, this kind of tranquillity costs, something that’s hinted at by the Range Rovers, Audis and a Porsche in the car park. But with its confident blue-steel scowl, the Peugeot 208 manages not to look remotely out of place. Not sure I can say the same for me, but fortunately for the other guests, we’ll be gone in the morning. We’ve got a date in Edinburgh for our last 208.

Read next: Petrol 208 – the Lakes to Edinburgh

From Birmingham to the Lakes via motorways and mountains