Peugeot is marking the fifth anniversary of its two big-selling family cars – the 3008 and 5008 – by tweaking their appearance and upping the technology count.
Each car was extensively overhauled earlier this year, with most of the changes focusing on the headlights, grille and bumper design. These ensured both adopted the look of more recent stablemates, the 208 supermini and 2008 SUV.
Therefore, this latest round of styling touch ups on all models of the 3008 and 5008 range are pretty subtle. Even so, ‘Active Premium’, ‘Allure’ and ‘Allure Premium’ cars now get gloss black door mirror covers for “a sportier look”.
Cabin changes are reserved for ‘GT Trim’ derivatives and these, too, are minimal, with the copper contrast stitched cloth chairs finished in a leather-effect trim.
Both 3008 and 5008s models now feature Peugeot’s digital ‘i-Cockpit’ in addition to a 12.3-inch head-up display, with the 10-inch colour touchscreen on cars from ‘Allure’ up adding sat-nav and live traffic and travel information that’s provided by TomTom.
Driver safety aids now include the company’s ‘Night Vision’ technology, which allows those at the wheel to view pedestrians and animals on the main instrument panel at distances 200m beyond the headlights’ range. Adaptive cruise control and Lane Positioning Assist have also been added to the two cars’ kit tally.
Save for entry-level ‘Active Premium’, the 3008 is available as a 222bhp front-wheel-drive plug-in hybrid. A four-wheel-drive set-up with a more powerful petrol-electric motor combination (296bhp) is offered on ‘Allure Premium’, ‘GT’ and ‘GT Premium’ trim levels. All are mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission.
Capable of travelling 39-miles on a single charge of its 13.2kWh lithium-ion battery, the plug-in hybrid powertrain has accounted for almost 12% of sales since it joined the 3008 range in the summer of 2019.
The larger 5008, with its versatile interior that includes a third row of seats that can be folded away when not in use, deploys the same 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol and 1.5-litre fout-cylinder turbo motors. However, it is still not built as a PHEV, so the gulf in power is bridged by a 1.6-litre petrol and a 2-litre diesel that both develop 178bhp.
On sale since 2017, sales of the 3008 totalled 80,000 in the UK alone at the last count, says Peugeot. And like the 5008, it has also won a host of industry awards.
