Peugeot 2008 Review & Prices

The Peugeot 2008 is a small SUV with a bold look, comprising strong colour schemes and a variety of slashes and creases that make alternatives such as the Volkswagen T-Cross look more than a little tedious.

If small SUVs are more rugged versions of small cars, then the Peugeot 2008 is a 208 that’s kitted out for a paintballing trip. It has the same great tech you get in the hatchback, but is better prepared for some countryside pursuits thanks to its raised ride height. It's so good, in fact, that it won the Best Small SUV category in the 2021 carwow Car of the Year Awards.

And the French flair loses no momentum when you get inside, helped by a 2023 update that saw a 10.0-inch infotainment display fitted as standard. The digital driver's display (standard on all but the base model) that sits above the teeny tiny steering wheel looks great, and has a cool 3D-effect on top-spec models that works with the fancy dashboard design to offer a neat appearance that's tough to match at this price point.

Not many do better than the Peugeot for front-seat room, either. It will easily accommodate two tall adults and there’s plenty of scope to move the seat and steering wheel, though lumbar adjustment – which helps keep you comfy on long drives – is only optional on top-spec versions.

Back seat space is less impressive, though. Tall passengers will have their knees brushing the front seats if they’re sitting behind someone else who’s tall. On the upside, there is plenty of head and foot room.

In the boot, the 2008 has 434 litres to work with, which is better than the Skoda Kamiq and Seat Arona, but falls short of the Volkswagen T-Cross and Ford Puma.

Hit the road and you’ll find the 2008 is a great all-rounder. Its steering is light in town, but weights up to give you more confidence at faster speeds. The slick six-speed manual gearbox (top-spec models get an eight-speed automatic) is the perfect match for the Peugeot’s sporty small steering wheel, though that's where the sportiness ends. It's relatively fun on a winding road, but it's happier taking things easy.

The most powerful engine helps make it a bit more enjoyable, though. It has 130hp and is both sprightly and cheap to run. The manual Allure version is a bit more economical than the automatic GT, but official figures make the entry level 100hp engine the cheapest to run.

But what makes the 2008 stand out from alternatives is its eye-catching styling that proves cheap-to-run and practical family cars can still be desirable. For that reason alone, it’s worth shortlisting against cars like the Seat Arona and VW T-Cross. And, of course, the 2008 is available in fully electric e-2008 form.

If you’re sold on the idea, check out the latest Peugeot 2008 deals on carwow, where you can also find a variety of used Peugeot 2008 models. You can also get good prices on used Peugeots, and if you want to change your car completely, you can sell your car through carwow to get the best price.

As with so many cars these days, the 2008 has some close mechanical relatives. In this case, they’re the Vauxhall Mokka and the Citroen C3 Aircross. The Mokka is the most closely related to the 2008, and shares a similar engine line-up.

Not surprisingly, the 2008 is priced very close to the Mokka, with the Vauxhall being fractionally the cheaper car to buy. The C3 Aircross is a slightly more distant relative, but it does use much of the same mechanical package as the Peugeot, and it’s distinctly cheaper than the 2008 — by several thousand pounds in fact, so it's worth considering. All three cars are a bit cheaper than a Ford Puma, but the 2008 is a little pricier than a Renault Captur.

The 2008 manages to be comfy while you're driving around, but there are some annoying blind spots and it can feel floaty on bumpier surfaces

In town

The 2008 has nice, light steering, although it does suffer from the traditional vague Peugeot manual gear change. At low speeds, the brakes feel a touch grabby, so you need to train your right foot to be gentle with them or you’ll be head-banging the steering wheel. 

The big, thick windscreen pillars do create some annoying blind spots, and those aren’t helped by a huge rear view mirror that leaves only a narrow gap between it and the top of the infotainment screen to look out through. 

What you can’t fault is the 2008’s comfort — it’s properly French car-comfy when it comes to soaking up bumps and lumps around town. It feels like a much bigger car in that respect — a feeling that’s enhanced because you sit up nice and high.

On the motorway

The 2008’s impressive performance continues on the motorway. It’s quiet and relaxing, and actually quite enjoyable to go on a long-distance run with. The little 1.2 engine also has plenty of punch, so it actually does surprisingly well when it comes to overtaking. The only complaint – and we're being picky – is that there's some wind noise from the mirrors at higher speeds.

On a twisty road

Get off the motorway and onto roads with corners, and you’ll find the 2008’s trade-off for that comfy suspension. 

It’s quite soft and floats over the surface so you don't get that reassurance of grip, and there’s a good bit of body lean when you go around bends. If you can push past the lack of confidence, it does grip quite well and feels competent, and the traction control will step in to stop things getting out of hand, but it will skip and hop slightly if you hit a bad bump mid-corner. 

Really, the 2008 does exactly what you need a car such as this to do. Be relaxing and comfortable for daily duties. But if you really want a tall-ish small SUV that’s properly fun to drive, you should probably be looking at the Ford Puma.

Managing to beat many of its key rivals in boot space, the 2008 can be quite tight for those sitting in the back seats

The front of the 2008’s cabin is reasonably spacious, and the way the passenger-side dashboard is scalloped in means that there’s a little more knee-room on that side. 

For storage, there’s a nice lidded storage box in front of the gear lever, which can optionally have a wireless phone charging pad, and another open storage space just below that. 

There are two cupholders on the centre console — one deep, for bottles, and a shallow one for smaller coffee cups — and there’s a small storage box under the centre arm-rest, which has a tiny, kinda pointless, lift-out tray in it. Why? Nobody knows… 

The glovebox is also tiny, a common bugbear for UK-market Peugeots, because it has to share space with the fusebox. If you had a left-hand drive model, the glovebox would be twice the size. The door bins are decent, though, and can hold a big bottle of water.  

The door bins in the back are good too, and are actually almost the same size as those in the front. There are seat-back nets for storage, too.

Space in the back seats

There are ISOFIX points in the outer two back seats for child safety (and GT models can have another set of points in the front passenger seat) but there are some niggles here.

First off, the door opening is quite narrow, so it can be a faff to squeeze a big seat in, while the ISOFIX anchors are covered with little zipped panels. That zip feels pretty flimsy and it’s likely to break if you’re using them a lot. Still, there’s enough space to load in a bulky rear-facing seat, which is good. 

Rear seat space is fine in terms of legroom and headroom for adults, but if you’re trying to fit three people across the back, the way the roof-line leans inwards means that those sitting in the outer seats will find their heads brushes the sides of the roof. The rear windows are quite shallow too, which means that kids won’t be able to see out quite so well.

Boot space

The 2008’s boot is decent, with 434 litres of available space on offer. You can fit a big suitcase, little suitcase, and a squashy bag; or you could easily fit in a big, folded-up baby buggy.

That's better than the Skoda Kamiq's and Seat Arona's 400 litres but falls short of the Volkswagen T-Cross, which has 455 litres, and the Ford Puma, which has 456 litres. It's much more space than the Vauxhall Mokka (355 litres), while the funky Citroen C3 Aircross also doesn't quite match up at 410 litres.

There’s no load lip, so heavy items can be slid in and out easily, and the boot floor is adjustable to height if you really need to pack things in — plus, there’s even a nice, tactile metal handle for moving the boot floor. A nice touch. However, don’t bother looking for tie-down points, luggage hooks, or 12-volt sockets because they’re not there. 

The rear seats split-fold in a 60:40 ratio, and they do lie mostly flat (although there is a slight incline). The 2008 has the Ford Puma beaten for seats-down space — 1,467 litres. 

Annoyingly, though, the rear seatbelts get caught and trapped very easily when you fold and unfold the rear seat. That wouldn’t happen in a Skoda Kamiq… However, what is very good is that the luggage cover fits under the adjustable boot floor when you’re not using it, which is so much better than leaving it at home.

For those wanting a funky cabin, the 2008 delivers in spades. It's just a shame the updated infotainment system still isn't the easiest to use

If anything, the 2008’s interior is even more interesting than its striking exterior. You get a multi-layered dashboard, which is mostly made from very nice, soft-touch materials (although things do get a bit cheaper and scratchier as you go further down). 

Below the main touchscreen, there’s a nice panel that has shortcut controls for the screen, as well as ‘hot keys’ for things like defrosting the windscreen and switching on the hazard lights. These can be a pain to use as they're touch-sensitive rather than physical dials and buttons, so you have to look away from the road to use them.

Some parts seem a bit cheaply built, but overall the 2008’s cabin looks and feels pretty expensive. 

That new 10.0-inch infotainment screen, introduced as part of the 2023 updates, helps to elevate the interior. It looks great and gets some smart, snazzy graphics that respond quickly to your inputs. The only downside is that it's still not the most intuitive system to navigate around – though Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come as standard, which is good news.

You get two USB sockets (one regular, one USB-C) in the front on all but the most basic models, and two more in the back. The digital instruments — again standard on everything but the base model, which gets analogue dials — are really nice, looking high-tech and allowing you to choose from a swathe of different displays.

The mix of high-set instruments with the tiny, low-set steering wheel looks pretty cool, and it can work for some drivers, but many will find that when they’re sitting comfortably, the top of the steering wheel cuts across the instruments. That’s annoying. 

What’s not annoying is that the doors wrap around under the sills of the car, so when you’re getting in and out, you won’t be putting stripes of road grim up the backs of your trousers.

There are two petrol engines to choose from. The entry level engine is a 1.2-litre unit that comes with a six-speed manual gearbox and makes 100hp with official fuel economy of up to 53.2mpg. Step up the range and you get the same engine with a 130hp output. Allure versions have the same manual gearbox, but GT models use an eight-speed automatic. The manual is a bit more economical, seeing up to 52.7mpg in official tests, compared with 48.9 in the auto.

The 2008 is a reasonably economical vehicle. We averaged 47mpg, driving the 130hp version of the 1.2-litre petrol engine with the six-speed manual gearbox. You won’t get much better economy from the cheaper 100hp version, because it does struggle with the car’s weight. 

All have very similar CO2 emissions of between 120 and 140g/km, meaning first-year road tax is on the lower end of the scale. When it comes to company car tax, each is around 30% benefit-in-kind, but the electric e-2008 is your best bet in this regard at just 2%.

The Peugeot 2008 is one of those cars that’s fallen foul of the way in which the independent crash test experts, Euro NCAP, tests cars for safety.

Basically, NCAP deducts points and star ratings if a car puts some key safety items on the options list, as Peugeot does. So, without the optional Safety Pack fitted, the 2008 scores only three stars for crash protection, but gets a four-star rating with it fitted. 

The way the car protects those sitting within it stays basically the same between the two, but the difference is seen in the way the 2008 protects other, vulnerable, road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. 

Basically, more expensive models get an improved camera-and-radar controlled emergency braking system, which is better at detecting those walking or on bikes, and that’s what NCAP wants to see. Quite rightly too, even if it does drive up the price you pay. 

All models get front driver and passenger airbags, as well as front side airbags, and full-length curtain airbags. Also standard is cruise control with a speed limiter, lane-keeping assistance for the steering, speed sign recognition. Adaptive cruise control, which maintains your distance to the car in front and can keep you in lane, is an optional extra on top-spec versions.

Peugeot has done very well in recent reliability surveys, and the 2008 especially so, finishing in the top-15 of a recent major UK survey of owner satisfaction. The 1.2-litre engine is a well-proven unit, and is used across a wide variety of models, so there aren’t too many mysteries about it. 

Peugeot’s warranty isn’t all that generous, though. You get a basic three-year, 60,000-mile warranty as standard, although that can be extended out to 100,000-miles as a cost option. Peugeot offers an inclusive service plan, which costs £18 per month for petrol or diesel models. 

The current 2008 has been the subject of recalls, but they have been for minor issues, such as anti-corrosion protection on the front subframe, a blocked AdBlue injector on early diesel models, and a loose rear shock absorber mounting bolt.