Quickride: 2014 Peugeot 408 

"Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW." (aya-yu) 03/10/2015 at 12:44 • Filed to: Quickride

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Welcome back to Quickride, where as always, features obscure cars in obscure way of review. This time, we have a Peugeot!

Yay.

Yay indeed, because this car is rather odd. It's called the 408, but it's not a sucsessor for the 407. It is in fact, a 308 Saloon with some extra wheelbase aimed for China, Russia, Southeast Asia, and South America.

This car is an example from Southeast Asia, where it was built in Malaysia. It's not very pristine example though, there's a few scars in this car. I guess because it was driven like a Peugeot should be.

Anyway, back to the car itself. I quite like the looks of it, it looks unmistakably french. It's also quite pretty. And when you drive it on the road, everybody will look at you. Maybe they are wondering why you bought this car. Or maybe they just wondering what sort of car is this.

But seriously, just look at it. You saw it from a few hundred meters in front of you and you know that is a Peugeot.

The interior is a bit.. boring. And look cheap-ish. It doesn't feels cheap, but it does looks like an interior from your rental Dodge Neon.

But the worst thing of them all in this car is the gearbox. It's a 4-speed auto. Come on, what is this? 2001?

You do get a choice of 6-speed manual, but that's only avaliable in the 1.6l model. The 2.0l has to stuck with stupid 4-speed auto. Yes it will shift smoothly, it's quite a smooth albeit rather tall unit. But think about it. When was the last time you saw 4-speed auto?

Also, thanks to this and a modest 2.0l inline 4 with modest 145hp, it'll do 0-60 in 9.2 seconds. A Civic is tiny bit faster than this. Boy i wish it has a manual since the engine sounded quite good.

The cluster is also a bit outdated. Looks like an old Suzuki gauge from early 2012.

I think i'm a bit too harsh with this car. I mean, as a car, it'll do a pretty good job. It's smooth, it's spacious, the ride is very good (comparable with my Elgrand's ride), it looks pretty good, and it's quite cheap (Price as tested: 24,000 USD). But for a keen driver, this car is a bit outdated and boring.

It's your choice, really. I quite like it, 6/10 would buy. What do you think?

Svend > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. 03/10/2015 at 13:05

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You through me when you said "It's called the 408, but it's not a sucsessor for the 407. It is in fact, a 308 Saloon with some extra wheelbase" (I of course read the next bit) "aimed for China, Russia, Southeast Asia, and South America."

At first I didn't notice much in the Peugeot 408 as we don't have it in the U.K. the last one we got was a 407.

I can't imagine a 308 saloon as we only get the hatchback and estate.

The 408 looks very much like a 406 that skipped the 407.

Cé hé sin > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. 03/10/2015 at 13:12

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"When was the last time you saw 4-speed auto?"

This morning!

But this is a Peugeot. They don't do automatics much in France.

(looks at 308 brochure online, finds 6 speed automated manual and no conventional automatic)

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > Cé hé sin 03/10/2015 at 13:18

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Oookay.

I guess this 4 speed was a leftover unit?

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > Svend 03/10/2015 at 13:23

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308 Saloon is China only at the moment.

Peugeot are weird.

duurtlang > Svend 03/10/2015 at 13:31

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The 408 is based on the previous 308, the very mediocre 2007-2013 one. The new and great 308 is very different. Not that I've ever seen a 408, for obvious reasons we typically don't tend to get sedans that size in Western Europe.

Svend > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. 03/10/2015 at 13:42

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They can keep it.

duurtlang > Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. 03/10/2015 at 13:44

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That it looks a bit outdated isn't that odd as the previous generation 308 it's based on was introduced in 2007, 8 years ago. It's a very mediocre vehicle, and as a Peugeot owner (406 coupe and 205 GTI) I consider the previous gen 308 not really worthy of the name Peugeot. The chassis isn't as great as it should be, it's too ugly, too tall and just too mediocre.

I actually drove a previous gen 308 last weekend. Only a few kilometers, but still. Not a bad car, just rather forgettable. The one I drove had the 1.6 from the Mini Cooper and a manual.

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > duurtlang 03/10/2015 at 13:48

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Well, yeah, the chassis on the 408 is really understeery.

And yes, that 1.6 sounds like the one you get on top of the line 408. Was it a turbo?

BATC42 > Cé hé sin 03/10/2015 at 14:35

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Peugeot used to offer a 4-speed auto, but they are phasing it out. They just replaced their semi-automatic gearbox, which was not that good, the ETG6 by a new one (which is apparently rather great) that's called EAT6

Cé hé sin > BATC42 03/10/2015 at 15:03

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PSA are deeply in love with their boite de vitesse robotisée but I've never seen any favourable reviews of it.

I've driven a 107 automatic but that has the Toyota five speed automated unit and it was OK, kind of.

BATC42 > Cé hé sin 03/10/2015 at 15:56

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Yeah the ETG6 was pretty crappy. The new one, the EAT6, is apprently really good. Not many cars have it though as it was only introduced at the end of 2014, and is only available with the new engines (the BlueHDI range of engines comes to mind).

Cé hé sin > BATC42 03/10/2015 at 16:03

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(Google, google)

They're completely different units. The ETG6 which you can get on the Cactus is an automated manual, the EAT6 is a conventional automatic from Aisin in Japan with a torque converter and so it's much smoother. The one didn't entirely replace the other.

BATC42 > Cé hé sin 03/10/2015 at 16:05

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Not yet, but I think they're going to slowly phase out the ETG6 in favour of the EAT6. I love the idea of an automated manual, but it got poorly executed by PSA.

Cé hé sin > BATC42 03/10/2015 at 19:03

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I've driven three AMTs: Smart, Citroen C3 and Peugeot 107.

They were all fine.

I've been (driven in) several buses with Volvo's iShift AMT and that was fine too.