After showing the concept car in Paris, the Geneva Auto Show has already been defined as where the official release will take place. But, as it’s becoming usual in the car industry, Peugeot decided to tease the public with the very first full pictures of their very first compact crossover. Besides of a very attractive design and a modern construction, this car follows several of the current trends and will be offered in many markets. This article will explain why 2008 will be a huge step for Peugeot’s future around the world.
Even when there’s no financial crisis, every automaker needs to constantly update its showroom at each market. Not only to prevent their vehicles from aging and therefore losing competitiveness among their rivals, but specially in order to keep giving their customers what they want. The current cars are offered in so many categories that it’s impossible to satisfy very much only with the conventional ones. This is why there are so many brands selling cars that would be unimaginable for themselves five, ten years ago. Some markets have recently earned huge importance and others have lost some, creating very big changes concerning to what a new car has to bring in order to achieve success. Peugeot, for instance, started selling crossovers five years ago, with 4007. This one was replaced last year with 4008, but both of them are actually Mitsubishi cars – the PSA Group had a joint-venture with the Japanese automaker which resulted first at Citroën C-Crosser and Peugeot 4007 coming from Mitsubishi Outlander, later replaced with C4 Aircross and 4008 coming from ASX. On the other side, Peugeot did create some crossovers of their own but they’re much more dedicated to the urban use, like 3008.
This dual strategy has seemed to work because Peugeot has always used the most appropriate one for each category, so they did nothing more than applying it to the compact one. Besides the fact that Mitsubishi doesn’t have a crossover this small, this public doesn’t really care for trophy-winning off-road characteristics. 2008 will have its biggest potential at markets such as Brazil and China, where people really pay more attention to more subjective features. They prefer spacious cabins, lots of technology items and modern engines rather than big inclination angles or ability to cross deep rivers or even to climb stairs. Not to mention nothing less than the best design it’s possible to create. That’s what sells thousands of these small crossovers each month, in a category whose biggest competitors are Ford EcoSport, Renault Duster and the upcoming Chevrolet Trax, Volkswagen Taigun and the French one which illustrates this article – there are also Citroën Aircross in Brazil, Buick Encore in USA and its “brother” Opel Mokka and the upcoming Renault Captur in Europe, but these ones’ trim levels give them slightly different proposals. Peugeot deserves big compliments because 2008 escaped from the looking-smaller-than-it-is trend, presenting an amazing interpretation of 208’s style, with whom it’ll share platform.
This car has managed to resemble the hatchback but also bringing own personality; it doesn’t give the idea of nothing more than a stretched, “tougher” 208 because it became classier. The front doesn’t have too big or too small items, but everything crafted to give a sporty, dynamic impression rather than an off-road toughness – some will prefer this grille design over EcoSport’s. The sides bring several typical Peugeot’s elements and some innovations, such as the chrome line above the rear doors which highlights the small roof extensions, but what gives that elegance sensation here is the windows’ design. Trax and EcoSport use only two of them to give a nimble look, while Duster is forced to use a third one due to the bigger length but visually disconnected from the others. 2008, in turn, uses the third one to give a bigger-size overall impression: it seems bigger specially than EcoSport and Trax because of that, although is actually smaller. Besides that, it’s also very nice to notice that this item creates a visual connection with 4007 (click to see a side photo), which is surprising because that one wasn’t a “true” Peugeot vehicle. Nevertheless, features like that are what gives 2008 a fascinating design, creating the perfect match with the high-quality construction. This car will have nine options of powertrain, with four engines between diesel and gasoline. 2008’s main feature will be Grip Control system for the traction control, to change its behavior according to the surface.