Re: +100.000 miles with the RCZ R (my story)
Hi guys,
So finally I have been test driving the new Peugeot 508.
I got into a spanking new 508 GT 225 in red metallic paint. The car had only few hundreds of kilometers on the ODO but the dealer assured me; it is already broken in, you can give it some beans. Alright, sounds good to me! Let’s roll!
He gave me a short intro to the car and then I left for my test drive.
A first impression stays often the longest with us. And so it was the case here with the 508. It is so quiet inside, so calming down. That was my first impression. Compared to the rascal-like attitude of the RCZ R it is like crash-diving in a hot bathtub and disconnecting from the outer world. Even compared to my Lexus LS the new 508 is a very quiet and well insulated car inside. Good job, Peugeot!
INTERIOR
In my opinion the whole interior is a huge step forward. It took me few minutes to get used to it. In regards of pure ergonomics all is well placed and within reach from the driver’s position. Materials are nice, finish quality is sound, all looks pricey (at least for this price range). I love the i-cockpit idea where the speedo is put above the steering wheel. I’m 5.9 almost 6.0 and I had no issue to find a comfy position right from the start and be able to see the whole gauge cluster sitting above the steering wheel. Forget about head-up display, you don’t need it in the 508.
The seats are very comfy although they do not match the superb R seats. And the 508 seats have a bit too short seating cushion. I’ve stretched them to max but there was still the sensation my legs are not fully supported by the seating cushion. I tilted the seat a bit to counterfeit this issue. It was no biggie, just nitpicking here. Side support of those seats is OK, just the right ratio for a GT car. The 508 is everything but a sports car. But I will get there in a moment.
DRIVING IMPRESSIONS
Driving the 508 is a pleasure. The adaptive suspension is comfy without being too soft. There is a tangible firmness in the damping, even in Comfort mode, but it isn't annoying. Only when you switch to Sport the suspension something looses its temper and starts to rumble over rough surfaces like stampeding horses. This is where you suddenly understand, the 508 doesn’t like to he rushed. That is the main character of this car. It is a true GT, not a sports car pretender like some other competitors try to do with their GTs.
Steering, oh yes, I need to talk about the steering. The steering wheel itself is gorgeous. It feels good when you hold it. But the feedback you get via the steering is horrible. It is exactly like in all Audi. You get this kind of synthetic sensation from the electric steering where you don’t know what the heck is going on with the wheels, do you still have grip, do they slide, etc? There is almost no feedback being transmitted through the steering wheel to the driver. And it gets worse when you switch to Sport mode. Then the system only puts more resistance or weight to the power steering without any adaptation of this force to the actual driving speed. So it feels strangely stiff in slow and hi speeds as well. And here I do not compare it to the hydraulic power steering on the R because it’d be pointless. But I do compare it to other GT cars like bigger Volvos, Beemers, etc. They do it better with electric assisted PS. Except for Audi and Mercedes which also have numb power steering systems.
Still you can drive fast on B roads and have fun with the 508. In his class the 508 handles beautifully. You can have fun with it as long as you don’t rush it. Take it up to 80% and leave it there. When you go beyond the car looses its countenance. No, no, monsieur! Sis is not whoot a french car likes, no! Drive reasonably, please!
Engine. So here we have the small 1.6 turbo unit sitting in a mid-sized GT car. I had no time to put the car on a scale but Peugeot claims it weights around 1500 kg. And it feels like this. It doesn’t feel flimsy and cheap, no, it feels carrying around those 1500 kg very sturdy and quality. But still it rides light-footed. And the engine has no issues with pulling the car forward. I have heard/read a lot about the engine being too feeble and too slow for this kind of car. I disagree. It pulls OK, there is always enough power available to do a sprint and as you can see on the speedo pic below, it will make the acclaimed 250 kmh, sooner or later, haha. It is not a rocket ship but it ain't a slow one either!
It pulled up to the indicated 244 pretty quickly. The speedo is by 2 kmh off only! There was a constant acceleration up to 240 and then slowly it crawled up to 244. Then I had to slow down due to traffic. Acceleration 0-100 kmh was something of 8.0 sec according to GPS device. See the other screenshot below for details. In there you have validated GPS data.
So, is it loud at those speeds? No, not at all. There is absolutely no wind noise from those unframed door windows. Only a bit of wind noise coming from the mirrors. But nothing to complain about. So Peugeot kept the promise to make the car inside quiet and comfy.
The best travel speed for the 225 GT will be at 210-220 kmh.
Fuel consumption? I don’t know. Had no chance to keep track of it. But while cruising at 130 kmh on the autobahn the indicated consumption was somewhere at 6L/100km (47-50 MPG). And due to the 8-cogs box the revs sit at 2000 at those speeds. Then you can enjoy the sound of the Focal sound system. The Focal system has a nice sound with separated settings for radio, media and blutooth sound. It won’t blow you away like those hi end systems in other cars. But for the money it delivers. Job well done.
Few words about the auto box. It has 8 gears and does a decent job all the time except when you accelerate hard. The up-changes are not fluent and on the autobahn at speeds above 130 kmh the box downshifts way too early when you want to do a short sprint. For comparison I kept it in manual mode and staying in 8th gear the engine had enough torque to pull up. In my opinion Peugeot needs to bring some software updates to eliminate those overreactions when driving on the autobahn. But here we are again, don't go beyond 80%, keep it calm and there are absolutely no issues with the gearbox.
The car was equipped with the night-vision feature. And it works very well. It spots all persons on or near the road. And when it detects movement across or in direction of your driving direction then it immediately alerts you. It does that even if the night vision is not visibly switched on in main cluster. For example I was driving in town and suddenly a woman on a bike started to cross my lane. Before I had a chance to react the night vision system suddenly prompted her silhouette in the rev counter (it then overlays the night vision view into the rev counter), bracketed in red and alerting me. I immediately stepped on the brakes but if I hadn’t I assume the active brake system would have kicked in.
If the system spots pedestrians walking along the road and not attempting to cross your path or do whatever suspicious moves (like drunken kung fu) then it only puts them in yellow brackets and doesn’t ring any alerts. I had the impression that the grade of implementation and software fine tuning was done properly. There were no false alerts at all. It even spots persons who stand very close to much bigger objects being partially obstructed by them. Well done Peugeot (or whom else built this device)!!
SUMMARY
Let’s wrap this very long post. Do I like the new 508? Yes, a lot. It is a very sound car with great riding comfort. It offers nice features and there is nothing about it what would drive me mad. Maybe except for the stupid touch screen, haha. But I feel like this about all touch screens in cars. I prefer buttons to touch screens because I can operate them sooner or later blindfolded. With touch screen I always have to look at the screen when I want to change something. Very distracting. But hey, what do you have all those collision prevention assistants on board for? To play around on the touch screen and trust they will save your bum when distracted, right? hahaha. Strange world we live in.
Would I buy it?
Honestly I don’t know. I'm tempted but there is no fire burning in me like when I was waiting for the RCZ R. I’m still hesitating because there is the new Volvo S60 arriving soon. And I am tempted to try it out before I make my mind on my next new car. Until then my beloved R is my companion on daily travels. And she is sooo good to me, she makes it sooo hard to fell in love with any new car. :greetings-wavingblue: