---
title: 'NEW Peugeot 408: should YOU buy it?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=3Lc5bE9KV70'
video_id: '3Lc5bE9KV70'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 1134
channel: 'carwow'
---

# NEW Peugeot 408: should YOU buy it?

> Source: [NEW Peugeot 408: should YOU buy it?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3Lc5bE9KV70)

## Summary

This video reviews the facelifted Peugeot 408, focusing on exterior changes, interior updates, performance, practicality, and driving dynamics. The reviewer provides a balanced verdict, highlighting both strengths and weaknesses.

### Key Points

- **Exterior and powertrain updates** [00:16] — The 408 gets a new face with three claw-like daytime running lights, larger 19-inch wheels as standard, and a new rear badge. The plug-in hybrid gets more power, and the 1.2L petrol now has a mild-hybrid boost.
- **Performance test results** [02:10] — The 0-60 mph time was measured at 9.3 seconds, quicker than Peugeot's claimed 10.2 seconds. Braking from 60 mph was also good.
- **Interior design and quirks** [03:11] — New dashboard, steering wheel, and digital displays. Materials are improved, but the interior can feel toy-like. There's no rev counter, only a power/charge display.
- **Rear passenger space** [06:00] — Rear knee room is good, foot space decent, but headroom is tight for taller passengers. Three adults will find it cramped.
- **Boot space and practicality** [07:40] — Boot space is over 500 liters, more than a Honda Civic but less than a Škoda Octavia. Folding seats reveals a ridge and seatbelts can snag.
- **Five annoying things** [09:04] — No rear wiper, a touch-sensitive panel that reflects glare, a persistent warning noise when opening the door, and a lack of a rev counter are among the annoyances.
- **Driving dynamics and economy** [12:17] — In sport mode, steering is sharp but suspension is firm and bouncy. Road noise is noticeable. Average economy was 43 mpg.
- **Final verdict** [17:58] — The 408 is a good-looking, practical car, but overall it's 'just okay'. Alternatives like the Škoda Octavia or Jaecoo 7 may be better value.

## Transcript

like the old 408." And it sort of does, but Peugeot has made some key upgrades if you can spot them first. Okay, spot them. them. All right, I'll help you out.
changes that Peugeot has made to the exterior of the 408. So, it's got a new face, similar to before, but also different at the same time, if that makes any sense. So, the old car had these fangs there, lion fangs, but now
just have three daytime lights. I think they're supposed to be like the scratch of a claw. They like to maintain the lion theme. the lower part as well. And in this red paint, it does look good. Sort of
might be too young to know who that is. Moving down the side, they have given the past where the range started off on titchy titchy tiny 17 in all cars now get 19 in. You just get different designs depending on your trim level.
exactly the same. That's usually the case with a mid-life facelift, they don't touch the metal panels, only the plastic panels. And so it is at the shield there at the back, but now you
just have Peugeot written. Every car manufacturer is doing that, aren't they? first, but on the Macan or something. Anyway, I digress. One thing that I just don't get on with with this car is this big plasticky boot. Reason being, when
car, you might scratch this and this rough plastic, once it's marked, it's scratches out of it and it just looks a bit protruding like a big baboon's bottom. Other than that though, it is a smart looking car. It is. One of
this car, which you wouldn't tell from the outside, are the engines. So, they've upgraded the plug-in hybrid for more power and this 1.2 L petrol for little electric motor, which gives it a bit of a boost and makes it a hybrid.
But does it? Let's see how quick this thing is from naught to 60. I'm not 10-second mark? Let's have a look. Let's go to sport mode. Full of the throttle. Oh, it's shaky. Didn't like that.
used to electric cars being super quick now. Oh, 9.3 seconds. Peugeot claimed 10.2. It's a quicker than I thought. That brake boosting was worth it. The
So, that surprised me. Let's see if the braking performance can surprise me as well. We're going to do a full emergency stop from 60 mph. Looking at around 35 m that is what I consider good. So, here we go. Coming to the braking zone now.
Good. Quicker than I thought. Stops as well as I thought it would. It's funny to 60 in 9.3 seconds is not particularly quick. Back in the day that was hot hatch. When I say the day that's the 1980s. That was my day.
interior of this 408. So, they include a whole new dash and new steering wheel. upside down and they're now using an Apple processor. No. That's wrong. They've They've just given it a kick plate.
Um there's some new materials. Look at these. That's a bit new I think. And there's some new graphics and layout of the digital driver's display. But, little bit confusing and for some reason there's no rev counter. Just like this
there's no rev counter. Just like this weird power charge thingy. this cuz it is an absolute dog's breakfast when you're trying to figure going to pay your phone and use that. I don't know why everything has to be so
dark either. You do have these panels here which you can configure and choose the navigation then. So, that'll do that. And you do have some physical buttons to suddenly bring up the climate control menu or turn it off or do your
but it'd be better if you could just control the fan speed and the temperature through those as well. There is something about this interior. I ways. I think it looks great in a photograph, but when you're in it,
there's just something a bit like a toy about it. Now, a lot of people don't get that you have the small steering wheel with the sitting above the steering wheel. I quite like it and and can get comfy
behind the wheel quite easily cuz there is a quite a bit of adjustment. But don't like it at all, do you? >> Doesn't work for me, no. of people don't like it. So, if you're thinking about this car, you really do
If you just want to play it safe, get something like a Honda Civic. That is just more logical and simpler and less unusual and overall feels a bit more know? Storage? It's actually all right. You got your storage there. You got your
USB-C there. Then there's a USB-C there as well and a 12-V and more storage, wireless charging. Glove box. Used to be rubbish on French cars, but it's actually not bad now. Looks quite deep and it's damped and lined with felt.
and it's damped and lined with felt. Door bins, decent size. Look, big big big bottle. We got cup holders there, which do grip tight enough, looks like. Even skinny bottles don't wobble too much. Other
things I like, you have physical buttons on the steering wheel. It's weird that display using that. But still, at least they're physical buttons, unlike in some touch-sensitive buttons and all confusing. One thing I'm not so keen on
though is this. I hate the sound of the indicator in this car. Once again, it does sound like a child's toy about it. Also, I don't roof lining. It's all just a bit cheap. And it is rather dark and miserable even
with like this acid green stitching here to try and liven things up. There's just needs a sunroof. You can get one, but it's a 900-lb option, but one worth want the upgraded stereo because it does sound better. And that brings on to
this. This is for the driver attention monitoring. Normally have them there on cars, but it's there. And it's too much in my eye line. I'd see it too much. It just looks awful there. It's like some carbuncle. Hopefully things are better
carrying rear passengers, you definitely want that sun roof because it's very dark and miserable back here. Doesn't help that you got cheaper plastic in the front. Knee room's good though. Look at that.
Really good knee room. Foot space is decent. Head room is okay. What's it like with three people? Let's find out. Come on then, Nick. Jump in. and there's not too much of a hump in the
floor. That's okay. I've got Lewis in. I'm all right-ish. Shoulder room's Lewis? >> Head room's not great. roof. Your head's getting pushed against that. Nick's not liking it. If I wasn't
>> Yeah, just stay there. >> Yeah. established that isn't great. Maybe it's better when it comes to fitting a baby the hardest actually, trying to access the ISOFIX points because the zips are
quite stiff. But then once you've done that, it's easy to get the seat through the door and find the mounting points. And there's enough space back here to be able to fit a bulky rear-facing seat. So, that is all good. Let's see some
other things we got. USB-Cs there, pointless storage there, little bit of storage there. Decent door bins here. Bit of a problem way down. And listen to the noise of this electric window motor.
Actually, you didn't shut the door. Right. So, you got cup holders here, a a thing there. And through loading for a little bit of through-age. Hm. I wonder how big the boot is. Let's
go find out. This Peugeot has a very big boot. So, it's just over 500 L of space, which is more than a Honda Civic, but not quite as big as a Škoda Octavia's. things over. Should we see how many suitcases we can fit in here underneath
suitcases we can fit in here underneath the load shelf? Let's do it.
impressive. Very practical car. But, you could fit in even more if you do this. Fold down the rear seats. There is a slight issue, though.
Bit of a ridge there. So, it's a faff when to load slides into the front. You probably also notice this. The seat belts don't have a separate which means that Oh, god. Bear with me.
When you put the seats back, like that, it can snag. Uh-huh. Ah. And that brings me to five annoying things about this car. The Uh. Uh.
Oh. Oh, well. Most certainly does not fit. Under there? Look at No chance.
forevermore. There's no rear window wiper at all. Why? This touch-sensitive panel is really flicker from the trees, whatever you're passing, and I find it rather
running and open the door without putting the handbrake on, it makes this noise even if your foot is on the brake and the car's in park. Listen. foot's on the brake. It's in park. What Why have I got this noise and this Apply
might not want to. That's fine. What What's this all about? Look. Oh, it's happening now. Turn it off. going to happen. Stupid car. If this was a Chinese car,
Lamborghini and [music] the embossed logo on the headrest, and for copying Ferrari for these shields on the side. But, because it's Peugeot, it's somehow it gets away with it. Two ways to go, though.
Underneath this huge badge there, they have the sensors for the driver have any ugly kind of patches or stuff And there's some other clever things. This button down there is a shortcut to
ADAS system, so you can turn off the annoying lane departure warning and >> speed limit warning. Quite unusual with cars like this for the doors to actually It means [music] that your sills are always kept clean, even in dirty
weather. So, when you get out and you accidentally rub the backs of your legs your trousers don't get dirty. The screen washers are integrated into the wipers. So, there's never that brief moment of being blinded before you clean
water that comes out there is incredible. Wow. Imagine what would have back. It would have been It would have been perfect. they're patriotic, which means that you also get French tires, Michelins. None
of your mid-tier tire nonsense here. The Peugeot 408 starts at £32,000. This one has a 1.2 L petrol engine and the top trim. It's £37,000. Only, it's
Carwow, you get five grand off it. And with that in mind, I've decided to combination of the 408. If you want to see what it is and the saving, follow the link in the description. Also, you can scan the QR code on screen now.
for something different. So, I went on Carwow's used car listings and I found this Audi Q3. It's 1 year old and has less than 10,000 miles on the clock. car with the Carwow saving. There is obviously a slight risk when you're
buying used and that's why you should always use a car vertical history check buying. Obviously, that one on Carwow had a clean report, but that might not always be the case if you're buying a used car. For instance, here's an
example of an Audi Q3 with a bad car vertical history report. As you can see, might want to just walk away from that car or at least get a severe discount on used car, check out CarVertical and use the code Carwow for 20% off. There's a
what this car's like to drive. So, I drive this car in sport mode because mode. Otherwise, the steering's a bit too light and vague and doesn't affect passive dampers, so but in sport mode, I
annoying fly in here with me. Let's take it for a ride. sharp and it feels sporty because of the What's not so good there is the suspension. It's quite firm and a bit
bouncy. And when you hit a bigger bump, you get like a dug dug dug going through a minute and I'll show you exactly what I mean. There's something else I need to it does feel sporty at first, you get to this point where the chassis sort of
sporty. I'm sporty." Then you chuck it into a bend and it starts to run wide, "Actually, you know, okay, I'll admit it. I'm not quite as sporty as I pretend to be." But until you reach that point, you might think, "Oh, this is a sharp
does it now. It's going to run off. There, see? Just starting to push wide. round cuz it stays nice and flat, but it doesn't. It just pushes and you get that tire squeal. Anyway, what's also not so sharp, the gear shifts. Not terrible,
when you put your foot down. What I do need to show you though is that clunky suspension. So, here's some bumps, listen for this. I can feel it [laughter] vibrate through the steering wheel.
when you're thrashing it. You can change gears manually and I'm doing that myself have is I don't know where the red line is cuz I can't see it cuz of the dials. counter? Why give me the ability to change gears myself but not a rev
counter? I don't know that I'm missing something and it's just in some menu, but I pressed loads of buttons and I couldn't find it. through a village, you do miss sitting up high, especially in situations like
my wheel is and not go up the curb. Oh, she's like oh, I'm coming. I'm going to try and get to squeeze past without going up the curb.
I know, it's it's my appendage. We won't touch you. Don't touch your car with your appendage. We did it. So, it's not overwhelmingly wide, but sitting lower down than an SUV does have its disadvantages. Thing is that when
don't mind. They they take more offense when you're in an SUV for some reason. Now, I'm noticing the suspension here is a bit bubbly. Lower speed round town is It's not the smoothest. I've got the car in eco mode. Now, I would not normally
recommend driving in eco mode mood mode, but one advantage is is that you can just cruise along very slowly without the engine running. But, give it a bit then the engine wakes up. The problem is is that there is a delay. Watch this,
is that there is a delay. Watch this, right? Cruising in eco mode, 3 2 1 prod. when you're pulling out of junctions. So, sod eco mode, stop being electric in sports mode. You need that pick up when you're pulling out of junctions and
stuff. And the steering is a bit heavier in sport mode, which is it'd probably be better to be in eco mode for the lightness of the steering wheel. There we go. Come on, eco mode.
Yeah, it's a bit lighter. So, you want the steering wheel in eco around town, but you want the response in sport mode so that you're not floundering at a junction. Ah, you can't win. Now, I'm just going
these other cars have gone. Turning circles, 11.2 m, which interestingly is very similar to that massive J Crew seven-seat SUV in front of us. Let's see if we can make my way around here. Now, what I want is I want the four cameras.
Okay, will this work? I've got 360° view. Can I make it round? Have a go at it. Right, so I'm past the van. Now, I would have been fine here if this person hadn't parked like that. Now, the
problem is that's telling me that I can get past, but I do not believe I can, out. So, it's all right, actually. It's not class-leading, but it's not terrible, either. The door mirrors are only okay
in size. The rear back window is quite a small rear glass screen, actually. And the view over your shoulder isn't great because there's a big rear pillar. So, doing that kind of thing, it's not so good. So, while fine, there are cars
town, and a lot of them are SUVs, to tell you the truth. Yeah, look, I'm cruising along in electric power now, 10 mph, just tickling the accelerator.
limit here. You do have to be so gentle with the accelerator. Press it a bit, does, you notice it because it's a three-cylinder, it goes and vibrates quite a bit. Obviously, the advantage of being able to do this is
economy. If you can be bothered, but I say life's too short, and that's probably why my economy isn't as good as it could be. They're not terrible. This it could be. They're not terrible. This is averaging 43 mpg. Oh, look, it thinks
it's 96 mph. It's definitely not. Rather than another big in eco mode. Going to sport. Sport is where the fun is. Now we're coming to a bit of dual carriageway. I'm just going to test the pickup from 40 to 70 mph. 3 2 1 now.
Woah, that took a while. Only kicked down one gear. It's not terrible, but it's not particularly quick. I'll tell you what is quite noticeable, there's a lot of road noise. Wind noise is fine, but it might be fine because I can't
quite loud. I'm having to talk noticeably louder than normal. You're going to be turning up the stereo, definitely, cuz otherwise it's just going to be like brown noise. In fact, it could send you to sleep.
Thankfully, the driver alertness thing will prevent that from happening. is it's it's fine. So, then, what's my final verdict on the Peugeot 408? Well, I think it's a good-looking car, but
overall, best way to describe it is just okay. I wouldn't necessarily recommend me and goes, "Look, Peugeot 408, got this wicked deal on it." I'd go, "Yeah, That's about it. Now, you might think that verdict is a little bit damning.
car such as this, you're better off with a Škoda Octavia. Or if you've got less, you can get something like a Jaecoo 7, which is an SUV and feels more controversial, check out my review of the Jaecoo 7 to see if you agree with me
video. If you did, give it a like. Let me know what you think of this car in haven't done so, subscribe to this channel cuz I've got some more exciting course, thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.