Peugeot 208 Fast Fleet test – living with the French Ford Fiesta

A couple of months and 1600 miles in, the Fast Fleet 208 has proven its worth through use as both a short-distance daily driver and long-distance motorway tool. There’s no doubt it’s better suited to some tasks than others, but impressions remain largely positive for our French supermini.

The initials of Peugeot Sport Engineering no longer adorn a single road car, and sadly the division won’t be laying its hands on the combustion-powered 208 anytime soon, if ever, so there’s no confusing our GT with its hot hatch relatives of old. However, that didn’t stop deputy editor James Taylor from venturing onto Bedford Autodrome’s South West Circuit during one of our recent evo trackdays to find out how it fares on the limit. The verdict was perhaps as you’d expect from a 134bhp mild-hybrid supermini, with ESC frustratingly restrictive and its three-cylinder engine feeling gutless on the open circuit. Of course, the 208 GT never claimed to be a track weapon and buyers are highly unlikely to book circuit time with one, but it’s all in the name of science…

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One thing that feels particularly right about the 208 is its kerb weight. Quoted at 1228kg, it’s only 40kg more than the discontinued Ford Fiesta ST. While this might not seem significant, the G90 BMW M5 has provided a stark reminder of just how much mass hybrid componentry can add, yet the (mild) hybrid 208 GT has achieved a figure you’d usually associate with a pure-combustion car. Granted, a tiny 0.89kWh battery pack will never lead to huge weight gain (or pure electric range for that matter), but the result should still be applauded.

Many of the 208’s journeys this month have been 100-mile-plus airport runs, and it’s tackled them without fuss. Its 170lb ft of torque is plenty for the task at hand, rarely leaving you wanting more in normal driving, even at motorway speeds, while there’s nothing to complain about in terms of refinement or comfort either. Despite a measly 44-litre fuel tank, range is also excellent under these circumstances; with c50mpg easily achievable on a long drive, there’s the potential for well over 400 miles between fill-ups.

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There is room for improvement in the infotainment department though. The 208’s central touchscreen not only lacks visual polish but also the response and logical layout you really need from such a system. Finding trip stats at the end of a journey has proven virtually impossible once they’ve disappeared from the digital dashboard, and the majority of the menus occupy only a very small percentage of the display, with the rest entirely unused. This is a Peugeot-wide issue and not something limited to the 208, but it’s definitely something we’d like to see improved. Thankfully, wireless Apple CarPlay has worked seamlessly for us so far, meaning the Peugeot-designed UI isn’t something we need to interact with often.

One journey I didn’t use the Peugeot for recently was a 300-mile run back from Le Mans. Well, a Ferrari SF90 Spider was an offer for that trip, and was every bit as epic as you’d expect. Swapping back into the Peugeot afterwards was as sobering as you’d imagine too, but in the real world, stacked against true rivals, there’s no doubt the 208 is meeting its brief well.