Peugeot 208 2026 review | An appealing mainstay of the supermini market

What is the Peugeot 208?

The Peugeot 208 is the French firm’s small hatchback offering, making it the latest in a long line of cars that have proven very successful for the company. You don’t need to go back to the days of the now-legendary 205 to find evidence that Peugeot really knows its onions where small cars are concerned, and how to make them into proper moneyspinners.

The latest 208 is actually getting a little long in the tooth these days, having originally been released in 2019 and facelifted in late 2023. Regardless, it still appeals to buyers in the same ways that Peugeot’s small cars always have: with agile driving manners, affordable running costs, and a large dose of chic Gallic style, both inside and out.

It’s offered in a variety of forms, too. Diesel is no longer part of the lineup, but you still choose from a turbocharged petrol engine, and two hybrids, although as we’ll discover, these are merely mild hybrids that we’d dispute have enough electrical assistance to be considered hybrids at all. There are also two battery-electric options for those who have the ability to charge at home.

Although many buyers that would traditionally have chosen a small hatchback have now defected to a small SUV, this sector of the market is still a crowded and fiercely contested one. And the mix of powertrains offered by the 208 widens the competitor set further still.

Of course, some of those competitors come from within the same stable as the 208 itself, Peugeot being part of the massive manufacturing conglomerate known as Stellantis: the Vauxhall Corsa, Citroen C4 and DS3 all share the same CMP platform as the 208. Rivals from outside the stable include the Dacia Sandero, Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20, Mazda 2 Hybrid, MG 3, MINI, Renault Clio, Seat Ibiza, Skoda Fabia, Suzuki Swift, Toyota Yaris, and Volkswagen Polo.

And that’s just the combustion-engined alternatives: consider small-EV rivals to the all-electric e-208, and the competitor set becomes even larger. Open your search out further to include those small SUVs that many buyers will also be considering, and the options become seemingly infinite.

The good old 208 has its work cut out in standing out, then, but how does it get on? Find out in our Peugeot 208 review...

How practical is it?

If you’ve read a review of almost any Peugeot car from within the last decade or so, you’ll have heard of something called i-Cockpit. This is the French firm’s unique take on how your driving position should work. In the vast majority of cars, your driving instruments sit behind the steering wheel, and you look through the wheel to view them. In a Peugeot, meanwhile, you get a teeny shrunken-down steering wheel, and you look at your instruments over the top of it, rather than through it.

Peugeot’s first few attempts at this, all those years ago, felt very awkward - even uncomfortable for some drivers - because you had to set the steering wheel very low down to be able to see the instruments, and fitting your knees underneath it was difficult for many drivers, and almost impossible for particularly tall drivers.

However, the firm has persevered with the concept and refined it over the years, and it’s now much better. We think most people - especially those not used to Peugeots - will still find that the driving position feels a tiny bit odd, but very few will find it awkward-feeling and even fewer will find it uncomfortable. Even so, we’d still urge you to try before you buy just to make double-sure which camp you fall into.

We did notice, however, that the ‘Dynamic front seats’ in our range-topping GT Premium test car (you also get these on GT versions) had headrests that protruded a long way forwards, forcing your neck into a slightly uncomfortable angle.

All versions offer plenty of adjustment in both the driver’s seat and steering wheel, and in range-topping GT Premium spec, the seat adjustment is electric. The front seats are surrounded by a large number of nooks and crannies for storing oddments, too, although the small rear windows mean your over-the-shoulder visibility could be better.

Those small rear windows also mean that the rear seats don’t get as much natural light as they might, contributing to a slightly dingy and claustrophobic feel. The other contributing factor to this, of course, is the limited space on offer back there.

A six-foot passenger will fit behind a driver of a similar size, and there’s space under the front seats for their feet, but there won’t be any space to spare. Their knees will be in very close proximity to the backrests of the front seats, and their scalp will be tickling the headlining. And because the ceiling curves downwards at the sides of the car, they may risk bashing their head on it if they forget to brace when going around a corner. Tall friends and gangly teenagers certainly won’t want to be cooped up back there for long distances, and forget about squeezing a third passenger into the back, even for short hops: the cabin is too narrow for that. A couple of smaller kids should be fine, though.

Getting to the rear seats in the first place isn’t as easy as it should be, either. That’s due to teeny rear door openings, which are filled by doors that don’t open very wide.

The 208’s boot is a decent size by class standards, if hardly game-changing. You get 352 litres of space in the hybrid, and a slightly smaller 309 litres in the EV. The large hatchback boot opening gives good access to the space, although if you fancy a powered tailgate, you’re out of luck because such a feature isn’t offered, even as an option. There’s quite a hefty lip at the boot entrance, too, and in EV versions, there’s no underfloor storage for your charging cable.

The rear seats fold down in a 60/40 split to extend the cargo area up to 1163 litres (or 1118 litres in the EV), but there’s a hefty step up to the rear seatbacks, and those seatback also lie at a slight angle, meaning there’s a slope in your extended loadbay as well as a step.

And what about interior quality? Well initially, it has to be said that there’s a fair amount of razzmatazz on show. The top of the dashboard has a squidgy soft-touch covering, and although most of the plastics lower down are harder and less tactile, the textured in such a way that they still look good. The design is appealingly modern, and the piano-key-style switches, with their metallic finish and precisely damped action, look great and are a joy to use.

Things aren’t perfect: there’s rather too much piano black trim on show for our liking (this shows up dust and fingerprints like nobody’s business), and there is the odd below-par panel that undermines the plush feel slightly. However, we’d still rate this as one of the more interesting and attractive interiors in the supermini class.

What's it like to drive?

The Peugeot 208 is currently offered with a choice of three petrol engines, all of which are variations on the same 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo petrol engine that’s been used in this generation of the 208, in various different guises, ever since its launch.

The first of these is the 1.2 Turbo 100, which is paired with a six-speed manual gearbox, and has a modest 100bhp and a 0-62mph sprint time of a just-as-modest 10.1 seconds. We haven’t yet tried it, but we’ll update this review as soon as we do.

The other two options are badged as the Hybrid 110 and the Hybrid 145, but don’t be taken in by the badging. These aren’t what we’d call ‘proper’ hybrids, merely 48-volt mild hybrids, which use a very small electric motor to produce a very small amount of electrical assistance when pulling away and accelerating to take a sliver of the burden off the petrol engine. The car can move around under electric-only propulsion, but only at very low parking speeds, and for metres - rather than miles - at a time.

We haven’t yet tried the 110, but we have tried the 145. Or rather, for full transparency, we’ve tried the Hybrid 136 that was available before the 145 came along. But again, don’t trust the badging. The fact is that the 136 and 145 powertrains are exactly the same: it’s just that Peugeot worked out that a larger number would sound better on the brochure, and so later decided to rework the engine’s moniker to include the combined output of both the petrol engine and electric motor (see, we told you that the electric assistance was minimal!), rather than just the output of the petrol engine. Otherwise, they have the same performance (0-62mph in 8.1 seconds), same economy (around 65mpg), same everything.

Regardless of what you call it, the powertrain punches harder than you might expect. Sometimes a little too hard, in fact, and not in an awfully polished way. Allow us to explain.

The fact is that the initial throttle response is a little lazy, and the six-speed twin-clutch automatic transmission is a little ponderous, and that combination means that there’s a distinct second-or-two pause between you pressing the pedal and anything noticeable happening. However, once the powertrain finally does snap out of its stupor and realise that the fleshy thing behind the steering wheel is asking for some acceleration, it reacts quite fiercely, often sending you barrelling forwards quite a bit quicker than you anticipated, with the engine rasping away noisily in the process. A hard-to-modulate throttle pedal only adds to the unpredictability of the car’s response. All in all, then, the car is capable of a surprising amount of pace, just not always at the times you want it.

If you fancy the all-electric e-208, this can be had in two forms, a 134bhp version with a 50kWh battery and an official combined range of up to 226 miles, or a 154bhp version with a 51kWh battery and an official combined range of up to 268 miles. Despite the power difference, there’s actually very little between them on paper for performance: just a tenth of a second from 0-62mph, and it’s also strange that the more powerful car is slower on paper (8.2 seconds compared to the 134bhp version’s 8.1 seconds) despite the two versions having identical weight figures.

Regardless of these oddities, we’ve driven the lower-powered version, and while it shares the hybrid’s lazy throttle response, its accelerator pedal is much easier to modulate, and once it gets going, it unfurls its urge in a satisfyingly smooth, linear and eager - if not massively fast - way.

Otherwise, the 208’s driving experience is entirely adequate, if not particularly dazzling. Comfort levels are entirely acceptable despite a distinct underlying firmness to the ride (rivals like the Volkswagen Polo and Renault Clio are more cosseting), although for the most comfortable time, stick to versions on smaller 16-inch wheels, as things can feel rather more knobbly on the 17-inchers of GT and GT Premium trims.

That firmness helps lend the 208 quite an agile feel in corners thanks to crisp body control, and there’s plenty of grip to play with, too. The tiny steering wheel initially tricks you into thinking that the steering is quicker and more responsive than it really is, but in truth, it’s actually quite leisurely in both respects, and that - along with an absence of any genuine feedback - prevents the handling from being as fun as it might be. So does that lazy throttle response, and the fact that all versions we’ve tried feel rather heavy on the brakes.

On the refinement front, the petrol engines stay quiet for most of the time, except on those occasions mentioned when they’re made to work unnecessarily hard by the dim-witted automatic gearbox and hard-to-modulate throttle. The engines settle down well at motorway speed, but there’s plenty of wind- and road noise to be heard at 70mph.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

These days, the trim levels available to Peugeot 208 buyers are Style, Allure, GT and GT Premium (other trim levels have come and gone over the car’s life, and you can read a bit more about some of these in our ‘Three things to know’ section).

Style spec is the entry point, and although some might consider it a little basic, it comes with most of what buyers will really want. You get a 10.0-inch infotainment screen with DAB, Bluetooth, TomTom navigation, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, along with keyless start, four electric windows, leather steering wheel, single-zone climate control, fabric upholstery, electrically-adjusting and heated door mirrors, rear parking sensors, LED exterior lighting and automatic lights and wipers. You do make do with steel wheels, though.

Up next is Allure trim, which adds 16-inch alloy wheels, part-leather-effect upholstery, front parking sensors, electric parking brake, power folding door mirrors, a configurable 10.0-inch digital instrument panel and an upgraded HD central touchscreen.

GT trim adds 17-inch alloys and a bunch of exterior styling enhancements, plus an HD colour reversing camera, keyless entry, sports seats with part-leather trim, eight-colour interior ambient lighting, and automatic high-beam headlights.

GT Premium tops the range with alcantara upholstery, heated front seats, driver’s seat with power adjustment and massaging, wireless smartphone charging, and a front parking camera.

We’re told that the slightly more basic infotainment system of Style trim runs more basic software than the HD system found in all other versions, but we haven’t encountered it for ourselves, so we can’t tell you how detrimental an effect - if any- that has. This version also gets analogue dials rather than the digital instrument display.

In the other versions, those digital dials look quite cool, with a 3D effect that makes it look like the information is floating above the surface of the screen, and the info in question remains fairly easy to read. There’s an impressive amount of configuration, too, with a wide choice of different layouts that are quickly and easily selectable via a roller control on the steering wheel.

The central touchscreen is reasonably easy to get your head around most of the time, although it’s not perfect. We like the fact that there are quick-to-access menus for turning off some of the more irritating driver assistance systems should you so wish, but why there are several menus for this, containing most of the same deactivatable features - rather than just one - is a bit beyond us. The settings menu is rather long and convoluted, too.

And while it might be music to your ears that the touchscreen controls are supplemented by a row of smart-looking piano-key-style switches underneath for operating various functions, just hold your horses. Unfortunately, some of the functions in question are - in our book - entirely the wrong ones. They operate the hazard lights (perfectly understandable), door locks (fine), the heated front- and rear windows (no problem), and the air-recirculation function (okay), and they also either turn the air-con off, or turn it up to full blast. Our point is, how often - if ever - are you in need of those last two functions? Surely, those two switches would be far better used as controls for the cabin temperature, or fan speed, or both.

As it is, these two functions (which you usually use several times a day) have to be operated by the climate menu on the touchscreen, which is much more of a faff. At least there’s a shortcut to the climate menu just above the switches, but even that’s an annoying touch-sensitive icon rather than a proper button.

Peugeot 208 running costs

Peugeot doesn’t have the most glittering record of reliability, but the latest What Car? Reliability Survey might suggest that this may not be entirely fair. The French firm placed in joint-11th out of the 30 brands considered in the manufacturer standings, which is not a bad result.

Unfortunately, the news isn’t quite so glittering where the 208 itself is concerned. In the Small Car class of the same study, the combustion-engined 208 and all-electric e-208 were considered separately, and they came 16th and 22nd, respectively, out of 26 models considered. The most common problems with the petrol 208 were with the infotainment system, while the e-208 suffered a lot more problems, a high proportion of which meant that the cars couldn’t be driven. This probably won’t inspire much confidence in potential owners.

Neither will Peugeot’s very bog-standard warranty offering, which on combustion-engined cars, consists of a two-year, unlimited-mileage manufacturer warranty, with a third year of cover supplied by the Peugeot retailer network, capped at 60,000 miles. Things are rather rosier with the firm’s EVs, though. The basic agreement is the same, but if you get your electric Peugeot serviced within the firm’s dealer network according to schedule, then your warranty is automatically topped up until the next scheduled service, up to a maximum of eight years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.

And precisely what are those service schedules? Well, on combustion-engined 208s, they’re every year or 16,0000 miles. With the e-208, you need an initial inspection at one year or 8,000 miles to ensure that everything is - like the conductor on a ghost train - tickety-boo, with the first scheduled service taking place at two years or 16,000 miles, and then you’re looking at every two years or 16,000 miles after that.

Peugeot 208 reliability

A new Peugeot 208 will come with a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty. That’s not awful, by any stretch, but it pales in comparison to the five-year warranties offered by Toyota and Hyundai – and it’s a long way behind the seven-year warranty offered by Kia.

The warranty can at least be extended, however, and all new Peugeots also benefit from 12 months’ roadside assistance. Not that you should have to call upon it often, though, given that Peugeot has a fairly decent reputation for reliability and an increasingly good reputation for customer satisfaction.

Buyers of the e-208 should have little to worry about on the battery front, too, as it comes as standard with an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty that guarantees it will retain at least 70 per cent of its charge capacity.

Peugeot’s second-generation 208 is still in its infancy, that said, so it’s too early to say whether it’s going to be entirely trouble-free or how well the battery pack will last in the electric model. There have been some minor recalls so far, so if you’re buying a used example it’s worth checking if they’ve been attended to. If reliability and warranty are what you’re looking for in a small car, you’re still probably best off with a car from a brand such as Toyota or Kia.

If you want to buy a used Peugeot 208, have a look at the Peugeot Approved Used scheme. Each of the cars offered by Peugeot is comprehensively checked and retained with a minimum of 12 months’ warranty. A host of other benefits are offered, too, easing the hassle of buying a second-hand 208.