Tastes differ, but the brand new Peugeot 308 is perhaps the most strikingly designed car in its bloodline. Not just because it is the latest. Time to drop by its predecessors to see how far Peugeot has come over the years.
Peugeot 309
We can go even further back in time by starting with the Peugeot 305, but then there is always a bit of noise on the line. Strictly speaking, the 305 was not succeeded one on one by the 309, but the 309 found a direct successor in the 306. The 309 is essentially the car where the bloodline of the 308 begins. The conception of the 309 was also the reason that something special happened in terms of the succession of the 305. The car that eventually became the 309 was, after all, intended as the successor to the Talbot Horizon, but there was a line through Talbot and the Horizon. successor was marketed under the name of parent company Peugeot. However, the 305 was not yet finished at that time and that is why Peugeot decided to market the car under the remarkable ‘name’ 309 alongside its own compact middle class.
In terms of design, Peugeot was able to bring it into line with the 205 and 405 and he also shared the necessary technology and parts with the 205. For example, the doors were from the 205 and the 309 was on an extended version of the 205- base. The 309 may not have been quite the class Peugeot initially envisioned for a compact midsize car, but it didn’t hinder it on its way to significant sales success. In the Netherlands no fewer than 50,000 309s were registered.
Peugeot 306
With the end of the 309, there was also room for Peugeot to continue on a more logical line. Where the French took a side step with the 309 in terms of naming, they went back where they left off in 1993 by baptizing the successor 306. This was of course just another model that Peugeot knew from the outset that it would come on the market under its own brand name and that led to the brand doing everything it could to make it as modern and attractive as possible. Fortunately, the 306 was well received for the brand, not least because it was a huge step forward in terms of design. It was also technically good and the 306 was praised for its handling. A breath of fresh air thanks to a facelift and the 306 SW added at the same time kept the 306 interesting for a long time. There was also a convertible, for which Peugeot – with good results – approached design house Pininfarina. Internationally and here in the Netherlands, the Peugeot model did no harm. With over 80,000 copies, the 306 is still the sixth best-selling Peugeot ever in our country.
Peugeot 307
The 307 proved that Peugeot is not afraid to start with a clean slate at a generation change. It was drawn according to a completely different design language than its predecessor and was both optically and on paper clearly larger than the 306. Peugeot was not really extravagant at this point in its history and that was actually a good thing. The 307 was modern, striking and yet ‘good’ enough to attract large numbers to the showroom. Especially the SW was a resounding success. With the 307 CC there was also a successor to the 306 Cabriolet, although the rather bulky steel roof caused some imbalance in the lines. It turned out to be a prelude to a Peugeot design period about which a lot of dirty words have passed in review. The facelift of the 307 brought him the much-discussed large grille and huge headlights, which have probably bothered Peugeot in the sales figures. Not that they have been very worried about it in France, because the 307 surpassed its predecessor nicely in terms of sales.
Peugeot 308 (1st generation)
Anyone who had hoped that Peugeot would take a step back in terms of outspoken design after the striking ‘snapdragon’ of the facelifted 307, was wrong. The first 308 even went a step further. Unlike before, Peugeot opted strikingly enough for a design that largely showed some similarities with that of its predecessor, although round shapes, a thicker butt and therefore an even stronger grille made the 308 appear quite large. In terms of space, he also proved that. A big plus of the 308 was that it looked remarkably neat once you got in. The interior was a lot higher quality than that of its predecessor and has certainly not stood the test of time badly. Anyway, the eye wants more and the first 308 was certainly not technically the most rock-solid product that France has ever produced. A modest facelift in 2011 took the sharp edges off a bit, but that is all about it. It should therefore come as no surprise that Peugeot will have remembered the 307 and 306 with melancholy when looking at the sales figures.
Peugeot 308 (second generation)
That it had to change course to return to the old successes, became clear at Peugeot at the beginning of the last decade. Although the successor to the first 308 carried the same ‘name’ – 309 had already been used before – Peugeot took a completely different approach. At the drawing board, they returned to the more modest approach of the 306 and pre-facelift 307 and so a car rolled onto the exhibition floor that looked conventional but modern. The big grille and the huge viewers were gone, the voluptuous lines the same and this time you had to get in the car first for some extravagance. In the interior of the current 308, Peugeot showed that it really had not yet been forgotten to be idiosyncratic. The small steering wheel in particular was striking, as was the high placement of the instruments. Not everything is ergonomic, although it still looks fairly fresh. If you put a 308 from 2014 (as in the photo above) and a brand new one side by side, you will see that Peugeot has not rigorously gone over the design with an eraser over the years. That says two things: the design has proved quite resistant to the test of time and Peugeot has become a bit more careful.
And now on
With the brand new 308 it is a bit different, because even though you can still see the outgoing generation in the basic shapes, it is significantly more a design statement on wheels. Whether Peugeot goes wrong with this, just like with the first 308, or whether this design is well praised, must be revealed in the near future.