PEUGEOT 208 test drive 5 doors since 2012 Hatchback

Multifaceted

Appearances are deceptive. It seems like PEUGEOT 208, especially in a five-door hypostasis, is so softly relaxed. In fact, before us is a multifaceted nature. The Lion Mark launched its potential bestseller with a course of modern currents and the anti -income, while setting new trends.
Gorgeous! The verdict in relation to the 208th is unequivocal. For many companies producing small class models (B), such an assessment would mean that the goal has been achieved. For Peugeot, such a limited approach is unacceptable. If only because the hatchbacks of the 208th series, according to calculations, should come up to 40% of the brand sales in Europe. On the other hand, since the time of class domination of the 206s, the number of direct competitors of the compact hatch of Peugeot has grown more than one and a half times. To reach the final of such a large -scale beauty contest is already a great achievement. But the task of the team of stylists, led by Pierre Okhier, was wider. The hatchbacks of the 207th series, with their aggressive expression, scared away part of the female audience, which crushed the commercial results of the model. The 208th should return the location of the best half of humanity and at the same time prevent the representatives of the stronger sex from the hook. Managed? Life will show.
However, it would seem incompatible in Peugeot can combine: for example, making a model more compact and more spacious inside while maintaining a platform with the previous base. Having shortened the overhang by 7 cm, squeezing the car in width by 2 cm and 1 cm high, the components returned the 208th to the classic dimensional framework of the small class, which were intensively pushed over the last decade. For megacities with their eternal parking problem, such a game is a candle, especially when the space for the knees of the rear passengers due to the thorough of the back of the front seats grows by an impressive 5 cm, and the trunk adds 16 liters in a nominal volume. This is with a set for a darned pierced tires. But the stamping for the doom is saved, which means that the loading of the fifth wheel will not make the coffee be crushed. True, the car will slightly heavier. Not scary! PEUGEOT is the only one in the B-class achieved radical weight loss of the novelty. The 208th by 110 kg is lighter than the 207th with the same 1.4-liter turbodiesel, and the versions with basic gasoline motors shares it more than 135 kg! The fat was cut off from many structural elements, which, as shown by EURONCAP crash tests (see p. 24), did not prevent the 208th from earn a higher, five-star safety rating.
New, three-cylinder gasoline engines of their own development PSA Peugeot Citroen, which replaced 1.4-liter four of the initial power of power, were introduced into the common piggy bank. In general, the gamut of the 208th engines on light fuel is unusually wide (68/82/95/120/156 l. Here the well -known formula buyer is always right. And in the European V-class, the share of models with gasoline engines remains much higher than in the market as a whole. The choice for a blitz test is obvious: a pre-production version with a potentially most popular 82-horsepower engine. Its three -cylinder nature resembles only a diesel talker at idle and modes over 4000 rpm. In the city, without experiencing a lack of traction and saving fuel, you can move at 1,500 about 1/min, and from 3000 rpm/min a peppy grab better than any lecturer will explain why they fought for reducing the weight of the model and friction losses in the motor. Here would still facilitate the transplantation of the ICD5 with less widespread movements of the lever and the clutch pedal with a shortened move, and we could talk about the sports spirit of the power unit. But such a character of mechanics is not in PSA traditions. And there is nothing to choose transmission for gasoline versions. By 2013, when the 208th will reach Russia, the picture will change. The application has a 4-band AL4 veteran, AKP6 and a box with two clutches based on the workings of a new partner of the French, GM concern.
In any case, the trinket of the models see the chassis settings. The driver and the car is one, it is said about Peugeot 208. And the revolutionary architecture of the torpedo with a combination of devices raised above the elliptical steering wheel and the very rare case put forward to the salon in the salon, when originality does not conflict with convenience.
What about Russian prices? As they say, wait for an answer. In France, the 208th in the base is almost Spartan car, and at higher levels of configuration, and even with optional goodies, the price of the same 82-horsepower version is approaching 20,000 euros. But even if our 208th does not become the bestsellers of the B-class, they will emphasize the versatility of the modeling range of Peugeot.


 

Source: Cars