Before sunrise, Monday – A Peugeot 2008 French Love Affair Over 3 Days

By Vinod Nair

 

You may have already read Kenso’s review of the pretty-new Peugeot 2008 SUV. Anyways, here’s an alternate one from a less-technical and rather romantic point of view.

When Kenso (or any car brand) offers you a brand new car for the weekend, it’s hard to say no. What more, it’s a Peugeot. On a hot Friday, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into until I saw it; a white 2008 that looked simply gorgeous and it was almost love at first sight.

ALMOST!.. Until I tried to figure out what it was. An SUV? A station wagon with large wheels? They call it an SUV, but then I started questioning the true definition of an SUV. It has the wheels and stance of an SUV, but everything else just didn’t seem like it. More on that later.

 

iPeugeot Anyone?

So here I was, grinning from ear-to-ear, choosing my best CDs for the weekend. Lo and behold, I spent a good 3 minutes stationary in the car park with a torch light, desperately looking for a CD player. “C’mon! It’s gotta be somewhere?!”

Furious, I called Kenso and he laughed and said “Dude, Peugeot says nobody listens to CDs anymore. Use a flash drive or turn on the radio.”

“$@%&#?!!!.. They think they’re Apple and can declare CDs obsolete?!” was my first response. Yup, this car and most Peugeot’s new models do not have a CD player. That’s a major-bummer for audiophiles!

Ok, fine. The saving grace is that the “Arkamys 3D Sound Audio System with 6 speakers” as specified in the brochure is capable of playing your high-bitrate 280kb .m4a music files purchased off iTunes. I didn’t try any lossless formats, but who cares? The touchscreen interface is cool, but its sound reproduction isn’t as great as its name suggests. No amount of tweaking can compensate for the sound’s lack of bass and hollow mid-tones, so lossy-music will do just fine. Bummer!

 

 

We can design it any way we want, coz we’re FRENCH!

Oh yeah, blame me for being sarcastic but it’s true. German, Japanese, Korean and even Malaysian cars adopt a sensible approach to designing its user interface (computer geek alert!). Get into any one of them and you’ll be familiar with most controls in the cockpit.

Get into a Renault, Peugeot or Citroen and you can throw your logic out the power window! So here I spent another 2 minutes stationary in the car park trying to get properly acquainted with the 2008’s TRON-inspired dashboard and controls.

 

 

Things that frustrated me almost immediately are:

• Placement of the panoramic roof switch next to the handbrake instead of the ceiling
• NO CD PLAYER (a necessary repetition)
• Not sure if the steering height was adjustable, but I couldn’t find the lever for it
• Took me a while to figure out where the door-lock was
• The steering blocked a quarter of the meter fascia

Took a deep breath and told myself “It’s ok, deal with it.” So after a good 5 minutes stationary, I finally took this French beauty out of the lot for what will be a life-changing 3 days.

 

Day One: Rocky Start!

I’m not referring to a good off-road excursion with this so-called SUV. Like any good love story, it starts out with an intense series of confusion and blood-boiling disappointments!

For a start, this 2008 comes with a host of cool automatic features; auto-wipers, auto-volume control, auto-rear wipers, auto-headlights, auto-parking; ALL of which AUTO-DEPRESSED me.

 

 

It started to pour heavily and the auto-wipers took a long time to decide if it should turn on or not. When the rain stopped, it decided to wipe faster. I gave it a few chances to prove me wrong but in the interest of this writer’s safety, I conclude that manual control is much safer. Strike one!

Auto-volume control, wow! Again, the Arkamys sound system gives an option to self-adjust the volume of your music according to your speed. I’m guessing it’s probably to compensate for the road noise, so I thought it was a pretty neat feature. When I started to pick up speed, so did the volume. I was pleasantly impressed, until the volume knob took on a whole life of its own. Suddenly the volume will spike up so loud and soft for no good reason. Sigh, as I wrote earlier, old-school manual control is safer. Strike two!

Auto-headlights acted strangely too. It’s broad daylight and as expected, the auto-headlights turned on as I entered the tunnel. It never turned off after I exited the tunnel. This happened twice, so I’m hoping it’s a fault with my test unit and not anything else. Strike three?

They’re cool features that may need more years and refinement before it can live up to its potential. But wait! What about the awesome auto-parking feature?

 

It’s Like the Steering Wheel Got Possessed!

Kenso made it a point to demo the auto-parking feature when I first got the car, even though I clearly said “It’s ok. I’ll try it later.” “NO! Your son will love it!”

Ok, he had his few minutes to show off the auto parking brains the 2008 had. I wasn’t impressed until the steering wheel started gracefully moving the 2008 into a really tight parking lot. He was right; this is a show-stopper!

Not only does the 2008 offer auto-parking to enter a parallel parking lot, it also gets you out of it. Super-duper impressive! I couldn’t wait to demo it to my wife and son. That’s when reality set in.

 

 

My claim is going to be bold; the auto-park feature is an awesome tech, but rubbish in real life Malaysian roads! Here’s why:

Attempt #1: I found an empty lot and initiated the auto-park process. Drove under 20km/h to scan the lot. DING! Parking possible and the system told me to move forward (to give it space to back up). Suddenly, an impatient Avanza* was right behind my rear bumper. Couldn’t park. Crap!

 

 

Attempt #2: Made a round of the car park to come back to the same lot. Initiated the same process. Moved forward and viola; another impatient Myvi* was right behind me. Urgh!

 

 

Attempt #3: Made yet another round and got to the car park. This time, a Vios* was approaching very quickly from behind. I drove the 2008 close to 17km/h and the sensor couldn’t scan the empty lot. Parking not possible. WHAT?!

 

 

Attempt #4: This time, I tried the same parking lot yet again, hoping no car would disrupt my moment of impressing my family. DING! Parking possible, moved forward and the 2008 steered itself in will little hassle. Ok, so it didn’t park quite straight, but it got the job done. Getting out was even more straightforward.

 

 

(*Ed’s Note: I didn’t make up the story about these 3 usual suspects. They really appeared in that sequence!)

Here’s the thing. The process took so much time that it’s just not possible given how impatient most Malaysian drivers are, especially at parking lots! But of course, it’s truly magical to let this system take over in an empty quiet lot. Nice to have, great to show off, but limited chance for real-life application.

 

Design, Fashion, Flare… FRENCH!

The French have a known reputation for superb design, fashion and engineering, perhaps close to German standards. Superb quality, comfort, ride and handling is synonymous with French car brands.

 

 

Perhaps that’s why my expectations of the 2008 were high. Granted, I admired the whole package as a solid continental car. But I can’t help but point out more of its flaws. They could have done better I think. It became more obvious during our 3 SUV shootout recently.

The C-pillar is a good example. Even though it’s designed to be an urban SUV, it didn’t have to look like this from the inside. Exiting a car park or simply backing up is as safe as guessing! The visibility is so confined that you’ll have to take it very slowly.

 

 

What’s a good road trip without drinks? For me, I’d like to stash as many drinks that I can easily pick up, even for a short trip to the office. In the 2008, the cup holders are just there for aesthetics. It holds cans but it’s in an awkward placement where important dials are. Worst still, you can’t fit in bottles.

 

 

Speaking of size, the 2008 may have been conceptualised as an “urban SUV”, hence its lower ride height and compact frame as compared to other thoroughbred SUVs. I mean, I pulled up next to a Murano and felt like I was in a Kancil! Compared with the Ford EcoSport and GWM M4, it’s definitely short. Its height is only optically enhanced by a clever chrome-feature above its rear door windows.

 

 

Given its size too, I felt that Peugeot’s choice of power plant was weird. Though on paper the 1.6 litre DOHC VVT engine churns out only 120hp and 160Nm, it feels spirited in real life. Not exactly powerful, but it’s good enough especially when left in Sport Mode.

Speaking of modes, the Sport Mode is only slightly better than the standard mode in terms of performance and fuel consumption. They are both doable in both urban and highway scenarios. On a spirited drive spanning 23kms through traffic jams in Sport Mode, I still managed 9.2km/l which is okay.

 

 

Switch to Economy Mode and you’re in for some nasty surprises. In general like in most other cars, the economy mode switches gears sooner and holds them as long as possible in low revs, to keep your fuel consumption in check. The 2008 does just that, but in a very dangerous way.

In bumper-to-bumper jams, the Economy Mode almost rammed the 2008 into other cars’ bumpers! In slow speeds, it holds the highest gear possible and then switches to the next lowest gear and suddenly you get a good dose of torque chasing you to the front. It gets pretty jerky too. This mode saves fuel, but you’ll definitely have to be on your toes to stop the 2008 at all times!

 

I Was Probably In Denial

As much as I was upset and ranting throughout the first 2 days, it was the third day that I truly felt sad to part with the 2008. Even during the 3-car shootout session, I admit I made silly excuses not to drive the other cars and stick with the 2008. What happened to me?!

I guess I didn’t have a good reference to compare the 2008 until the 3-car shootout session. Like the saying goes “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” I actually found myself missing the 2008 every time I stepped into the other cars.

Simple, really. Once I spent a couple of days dishing out all my complaints and justifying them, it’s easy to fall in love with the 2008. For the lack of a better example, I’d say it’s like an abusive girlfriend; it’s easy to find many faults in them but as a whole you can’t explain why you’re still madly attached!

 

 

Veni, Vidi, Verdict

If you’re going to test drive the Peugeot 2008 at the nearest showroom, do keep in mind that:

• It’s gloriously French!
• You might not be impressed immediately. It’ll need about 3 test drives before you get comfy with the 2008.
• At the price of RM119,888 OTR (private registration in Peninsula Malaysia), there are many other good alternative choices too. But don’t write-off the 2008 until you’ve driven it at least 3 times. It’s not about the specifications and performance; it’s got a character befitting its price.
• There’s enough tech to keep the geeks happy, enough fashion to keep hipsters proud and enough room for most families; with some compromises here and there. It’s truly up to you to decide if it meets your needs and wants.
• Bring your own favourite music backed up in a USB drive, so that you can properly sample the Arkamys sound system.
• There’s no GPS on the beautiful touch screen. But who cares? There are many GPS devices to choose from these days.
• You may find the car silent and comfy, but the vibrations from rough roads can get a little annoying. It’s okay as that’s what you can expect from such an SUV.
• If you don’t get the feel of an SUV when you get in, all you need to do is jack up the seat to the highest position. Viola!

 

 

Personally, I can’t say honestly that the Peugeot 2008 is my cup of tea. If you’re looking for an SUV that feels very much at home in the city, this is it. It’s got great looks complementing its many futuristic features. It’s a driver-car connection that takes time to develop and cherish.

The 3 days I spent with it actually made me count the hours before sunrise on Monday, when I had to return it to Peugeot Malaysia with a heavy heart. If you’ve not watched the movie Before Sunrise, you’d not know the poignant heartache of leaving such a French beauty. Now, I get it.