And that’s all the French I could google Anyway, today we have the Peugeot 3008 And it is what I consider one of the most successful models Peugeot has released in recent times How successful? Think of the previous generation MPV-ish looking 3008 In 2016, it sold 75,000 units in Europe And in 2017, when they released this SUV version of the 3008 it more than doubled the sales So it sold over 160,000 units I mean, double the sales So it goes to show the market really likes this car And I can see why It is one of the best-looking SUVs at this price point Even 3-4 years down the road today It still looks very good to me Just look at this car I mean, just take a look at this front grille All these vertical batons surrounding the Peugeot lion If you stood afar and really squinted like really squinted You know, the grille kinda looks like the nose of a lion Yeah, but I think it looks very good And look at this sharkfin-like design on the headlamp In 2017, this looked very avantgarde And in 2020 it still looks pretty, pretty cool-looking for a headlamp design Onto the side Speaking of design I mean, if you covered up this portion of the bonnet And you just focused on this this part here You squint really hard and you have a very active imagination This kinda reminds me of the Range Rover Evoque But I guess I squinted very hard But, you know, just something that I’ve noticed And speaking of design I really like what Peugeot did here with this piece of glass The way they blacked it out and the way it’s shaped makes the 3008 look like a coupe SUV But it isn’t because the roofline isn’t that sloping It’s just the illusion they created with this piece of glass here and this design here So that’s quite a nice touch to make the car sleeker and sportier than it is And the Active variant of the Peugeot 3008 comes with 17″ rims But if you look from afar it doesn’t look that small on this car Partly because of the 65 profile tyre that comes with this car And when the profile is 65 It just means it’s going to be a more comfortable ride and quieter, hopefully So, yeah, nice touch here On to the boot And I have to talk about the design of the back of the 3008 because this car is very good-looking I checked with (sgCarMart) production guys They disagree with me but I have to say If I squint really hard again The back of this car reminds me of the Range Rover Evoque Something about the way the tail lamps are that flows into this black panelling here It’s just very beautiful I like it And mind you, in 2017 when this first came out I thought this was one of the best-looking butts in the car business back then 3 years later, I think a lot of car companies have upped their tail lamp game And back design game But I still think the 3008 stands very strongly among the competition even today So anyway on to the boot What you get 520L – not class-leading But 520L is still plenty of space You don’t get any load lip So it’s a flat floor that you can put stuff in So let’s see how this car does for the Aunty Trolley Length Test Unfortunately it’s a bit short How about the luggage Can I put it in this way Yes, no problem at all So you can just put it like that What else do you get in the boot You get Your standard 12V socket Some lights And a little hole here to put some stuff But what I really like about the 3008 is you can knock down the rear seats from the back And unlike other models that we have tried before where you activate the latch The seats really do come down You don’t have to reach in to punch it down or go to the backseat to pull it down And that is the entire purpose of having that release latches at the back I think this is a very under appreciated thing in boot space reviews that the seats really knockdown when you release the (latch) Some cars just don’t do it well Good for Peugeot And with the seats down you get 1,482L, that’s a lot of space And the floor is relatively flat So, good stuff there On to the back seat Ok, before I get into the backseat Just take a look at the Threads The, you know, design touches these seats It makes the car feel very luxurious And this pattern is found on the passenger and driver side as well I really like this gold-ish orangey thread Anyway, in the backseat This is my driving position I’m 1.8m tall As you can see Lots of knee space Lots of foot space as well Very comfortable And this is the base variant, the Active variant So there’s no sunroof So you get a lot of headroom So that’s good You get aircon vents but you can’t control the climate from back here A 12V socket I wish that was a USB port instead What else is there? Ok, ISOFix points for your child seat Cupholders and a ski hatch So you can’t ski in Singapore Maybe you can put your longboard Or if you have some flatpacked IKEA furniture You can put it through here without having to knockdown the rear seats That’s great And for the middle seat I would say foot space is great because there’s, like, no transmission tunnel And I must say it’s a bit hard, the back rest here But I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable here for 30 minutes So that’s good, that’s pretty practical On to the front seat Ok, I’ve mentioned this word many times, and I’ll say it again Design Just look at everything From the lion emblem in the headrest to how the Peugeot 3008 looks Look at it So aesthetically pleasing No other car in this price point, I feel looks as good as the 3008 inside At this price point most of its competitors are just placing buttons where they need to be placed and having the car look pleasant but this this is, like, you know the hot supermodel celebrity-type of aesthetics It just makes this car feel A lot more expensive than it really is What else can I say? Looks matter So what can I say about this interior There are soft touch materials everywhere And even this fake-ish looking carbon fibre pattern is soft Great stuff You have to really go down low before you hit some plastics Even those plastics feel slightly more solid as well Ok so, the next thing that you see And it also has got to do with design is the Peugeot wheel It’s controversial because many people are Are taken aback by the size of this thing It is much smaller than your regular wheel And it is diamond-shaped I think Peugeot did it to make the car feel a lot sportier and nimbler I would say driving on the road it does make a difference You do turn a bit quicker because it’s smaller I feel it’s it’s a matter of getting used to and personal preference I don’t love it I don’t hate it either It’s just different And for the instrument cluster, it’s what Peugeot calls the i-Cockpit Basically it’s just fully digital There are no physical dials There’s some customisation that you can do And if you go into minimum The dials are gone It’s just a big number to tell you your speed There isn’t a rev counter Speaking of digital and information The infotainment system You get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as MirrorLink So that’s good What I don’t like I think in a bid to make things look aesthetically pleasing Peugeot has done away with physical aircon buttons And so if I’m on the road And I’m listening to the radio And I want to switch the airconditioning I have to first press the aircon button to bring up the aircon menu And then I will have to press to adjust the temperature and the fan speed It’s not exactly safe because I have to take my eyes off the road and there’s no haptic feedback So I won’t know until I look at it to know that I have touched the right buttons And then when I’m done adjusting it And I want to listen to my radio and change the channel I have to then press this So that’s the price you have to pay for design Speaking of design One thing that I found really cool Is the aircon vents As you can see, there are no no knobs to help you turn off the air flow So how do you turn off the air flow? You just push the aircon aside and all the vents close I think that’s a nice design touch And because it’s so design centric You start to be a bit more demanding And then you realise Why is the volume (knob) design like that Why can’t they keep this thing (the symbol) stationary It’s just No If you’re into design Feedback is important And then making things look aesthetically pleasing is important as well And there’s wireless charing for your handphone And one cool thing at this price point you don’t really get is this compartment here It’s very deep so you can keep a lot of things And it is chilled which I assume is for you to put small bottles of wine Or I don’t know keep your hamster nice and comfortable in there Good stuff, it’s something you don’t get at this price point And then because we’re in a Peugeot You guys will say that I didn’t cover it because you guys know already So I’ll just cover it the glovebox You get only half a glovebox because there’s a fuse box here because this car is originally a left hand drive model And they did the conversion to right hand drive They just didn’t move the fuse box away but do you really need that much space Do you take out your car instruction manual from the glovebox at all What else do you put in your glovebox? aside from empty angpow packets? Nothing much, right? Half a glovebox is enough All right, enough about the interior Let’s figure out how this thing drives Handling the 3008 I must say this is a family SUV So don’t expect it to be super fun round the twisties There is a little bit of body roll when you’re pushing it at speed round the bends But not to the point where you think you’re in danger but don’t expect this car to take corners really quickly It is after all an SUV And as I was saying The small steering wheel makes this car feel very nimble I don’t know if it’s just the impression you get because it’s a small steering wheel It does feel very nice to handle for a family SUV And I enjoy it So just don’t go taking corners at insane speeds with this and you should be ok So what’s it like to drive the 3008? It’s a 1.2L turbocharged engine producing 129 brakehorsepower and more importantly 230Nm of torque and mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission Now that’s very important because other competitors at this price point that you’re probably looking at the Qashqai and the Forester they both have CVTs and the 8-speed automatic transmission with 230Nm of torque means that I could easily execute overtake manuveurs and you don’t feel like it’s dragging or anything It’s almost immediate So putting the foot down the pedal is something quite all right in this car It’s not a race car It’s a family SUV at $100,000 you can’t expect it to be a race car So for what it is The gearbox and the engine is more than sufficient for its purpose as a family SUV Interestingly if you turn on the Sport button And then you floor it fake engine noise is piped in coupled with this small-ish steering wheel you feel very sporty but the experience is very sporty but the actual speed and the pick up is not a race car It’s just you know I would say a bonus to have Something that other cars at this price point doesn’t have piped in engine noise engine note Ride quality I would say, again if you compare to its competitors The Forester and the Qashqai the suspension on this is just that slight bit harder It’s not dealbreaking You just notice that it is slightly harder But it’s not back-breaking Yup that’s it So as usual we have “Will Buy” “Won\’t Buy”, or “Go Try” the Peugeot 3008 Personally for me, it is a “Will Buy” But many of you would would say that the elephant in the room isn’t addressed Which is this supposed reputation that French brands are unreliable To that I can only say that Is there a dependability study on all car brands in Singapore to show that French cars really do break down more Did the EMAS – emergency tow trucks publish a study of how many French cars they towed from the expressway So where did this reputation come from? Because there’s a dependability survey of UK car owners The number 1 dependable car for them was a KIA, I think it was a Sorento The number 2 car Number 2 dependable car according to car owners in the UK is the 3008 So Why the discrepancy in reputation I really don’t know Are there really that many Peugeot cars breaking down in Singapore? I really don’t know But why a “Will Buy” for me It’s because This car Design-wise is just so good-looking outside and inside And then The engine, with the torque mated to its 8-speed automatic transmission It just works well You get power when you want to There’s no CVT rubberbanding as you would get from the Forester or the Qashqai So It’s just the perfect mix of things That\’s why it\’s a “Will Buy” for me And speaking of the Qashqai It’s so popular in Singapore But Qashqai shares so many parts with the Kadjar The Renault Kadjar So the Qashqai is part French And why doesn’t the Qashqai get the reputation that French cars get? I really don’t know If you say the Qashqai from Nissan So it’s part Japanese there’s Japanese reliability there Well this car has an 8-speed Aisin transmission Aisin is a Japanese transmission maker So this car has Japanese parts So is it unreliable because it’s French or reliable because it’s Japanese? It’s really anybody’s guess So, yeap, to me it is a “Will Buy” looks-wise, engine-wise, drivetrain-wise It is there, it is a great consideration I would have bought this car 2.5 years ago if it were priced closer to the Forester But it wasn’t, it was $20,000 more Today, this car, I think is about $3,000 more than the Forester It is very worth considering So there you have it that’s my review of the Peugeot 3008 Don’t forget to like and subscribe to our channel And comment in the comment box down below on whether you will buy, won’t buy or go try the Peugeot 3008 And also let me know why Why French cars have such a bad rep in Singapore Is there a dependability study are all your french car driving friends having their cars breaking down all the time? Or do you have other friends with Japanese cars or German cars that break down And does that make you feel that Japanese cars and German cars are unreliable Think about it and then let me know in the comment box below Thank you so much for watching Till next time. Buhbye
