Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £13,495 to £21,945
Comfortable, practical, good value.
Windscreen pillars can block your view, and it's no looker.
More of the same, but much better.
The 307 was a huge seller for Peugeot, not because people fell in love with it but because it did its job well. It was roomy, generally reliable, with a good choice of engines and a range of body styles. It was good value and, unlike some of its rivals, there was nothing scary or ostentatious about the styling.
The 308 is built according to the same formula, but it's longer and wider, which makes it roomier. The first version to arrive is the hatchback, which comes with two subtly different rear bumpers and two even more subtly different fronts. They can't, however, disguise the fact that visually it's just a modest evolution of the 307, as described in detail in our preview and analysis of the new car.
If it looks largely familiar and unexciting from the outside, the inside is refreshingly neat, clean, simple and, for the most part, ergonomically sound. Go for one of the two-tone options; simple black is available, but it doesn't do justice to the elegant simplicity of the cabin's styling.
There are five trim levels - Urban, S, Sport, SE and GT - and, for now, six engines. The three petrols - developed jointly with BMW - are a 95bhp 1.4-litre VTi, a 120bhp 1.6 VTi and a turbocharged version of the 1.6, the THP, which produces 150bhp. The three HDi diesel engines are 90 and 110bhp versions of the PSA group's familiar 1.6-litre unit, and the 2.0 producing 136bhp. The most powerful diesel is the only 308 with a six-speed manual gearbox; the others all have five speeds. Peugeot predicts that 60% of UK sales will be diesels.
Prices start at £12,595 for the 1.4 VTi Urban and rise to £20,045 for the 2.0-litre diesel in GT trim. When the three-door joins the range, the entry price will be £11,995 for the 1.4 VTi.
So has the change from 307 to 308 been worth it? Is the new car significantly better than the one it replaces? Yes. The 308 is engaging in a way the 307 wasn't. Like the 306, the new car is friendly, easygoing and surprisingly enjoyable, whereas the 307 left most drivers cold.
