French automakers are known for being quite good at making certain, very specific types of vehicles. Aside from the quirky city cars and hot hatches that are most often brought to our attention, they also make some good MPVs/minivans. Therefore, for families with five or more members, the facelifted version of the moderately popular Peugeot 5008 is big news…
It was never the best looking of the MPV bunch, but the 5008 stood out with its high-quality interior, fairly flexible seating arrangement and good diesel engines – one wonders if anybody bought one of these powered by gasoline at all?
There is still the choice, though, with either naturally-aspirated or turbocharged 1.6-liter units, outputs ranging from 118 hp up to 161 hp. The diesels are still the same, with the most efficient being the e-HDi model that can do a claimed 4.2 l/100 km (67.2 mpg UK), benefiting from the use of an automated manual transmission.
On the outside, the facelifted 5008 adopts the new Peugeot grille and face. The refreshed look is an improvement, I think, but it’s still far from being the prettiest vehicle in its class. In fact, it looks like one of those cases of excessive use of botox – you know, when everything looks very tense, pinned back and not pretty.
There’s no autonomous braking either optional or standard, and the parking help system fitted to it only measures individual spots, it doesn’t steer the vehicle into them like some other models do. Don’t get me wrong, the 5008 is still pretty high-tech, featuring radar cruise control with Distance Alert (no braking when you get too close, though), hill hold assist, head-up display (HUD) and both traction and stability control.
Plus, there’s lots of glass and a rear-view camera, so perhaps putting an emphasis on avoiding a crash, instead of merely being able to withstand it once is a something the Peugeot engineers seemed to want to emphasize with the model since its launch.
By Andrei Nedelea
PHOTO GALLERY
