Peugeot 2008 1.2 Puretech 130 GT Line 2020 UK first drive

They say that good things come in small packages. They also say that too much of a good thing can, well, sort of be a bad thing. I’ll go out on a limb and connect a few dots here, but does that mean that a large collection of small packages might be something we should be mildly concerned about? 

“They” (whoever that might be) doesn’t seem to have any pearls of wisdom to offer on the subject, which is probably a good thing if you’re in the compact SUV-making game. And these days, who isn’t? There are now so many that it seems like we’re writing about a new one each week.

Which brings me to the new second-generation Peugeot 2008. It’s a car we’ve driven before out in France and rather liked, but now that it's landed in the UK we’ve got our first opportunity to see how it fares on our own, often not entirely smooth roads.

You’ll likely know most of the headline stats by now. It’s a bit bigger than before (some 15cm longer); is built on the same CMP architecture that underpins the likes of the new DS 3 Crossback and Vauxhall Corsa; and is available with a choice of internal combustion and pure electric powertrains. That last bit is all part of Peugeot’s new ‘choose your car, then choose your powertrain’ philosophy, which seems to me like a rather sensible way of warming customers up to the idea of adopting electrified vehicles. For what it’s worth, Peugeot reckons some 15% of the 2008s it sells in the UK will be the all-electric e-2008 model.

The remaining 85%, then, will be powered by petrol or diesel engines, with the former accounting for the lion’s share. And of those cars, it’s this particular 2008 is expected to be the best-seller. It’s the second-to-top GT Line model, equipped with a 129bhp three-pot motor that drives the front wheels via a six-speed manual ‘box. It’ll set you back £26,100, which is in the same ballpark as a similarly well-specced, 148bhp Volkswagen T-Roc SEL, but quite a bit more than a top-flight Nissan Juke - both of which fall into the ever-expanding B-SUV segment.

While I’d stop just short of calling its handling enthusiastic, the 2008 nonetheless changes direction with a likeable amount of energy. Its steering is predictable in the way it responds, weighting up in a natural fashion as you add on lock and pitch the car into bends. Grip is fine provided you aren’t a brute, and body control ok - though it stands that this isn’t a car that screams out to be driven hard and fast.