SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8
This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.
Interior pic by author; others by Quickpic
Back when Adam was a boy in shorts, one could buy a Peugeot 504 station wagon with two extra seats. Dealers couldn’t get enough of them to satisfy demand. Years later, station wagons grew taller and became either SUVs with all-wheel drive or MPVs without, for those not prepared to waste money on bragging rights. Technically of course, MPV means “multi purpose vehicle” rather than “big tall station wagon,” meaning it should fulfil a variety of roles.
The best way to qualify a vehicle for the MPV tag is to make sure its seats can flip, tumble, fold away or even be completely removable, so changing your multiple-people carrier into a panel van with side windows. The Peugeot 5008 comes close. All but the driver’s seat can be folded, lifted, flattened or tucked away individually in order to make not quite a panel van, but a big, spacious load vehicle nonetheless.
Note the word, “individually.” That means you could lift and lock one of the two third row seats, fold down both outer second row chairs, leaving just the centre one standing and fold the front passenger seatback flat onto its cushion, should you have a really weirdly shaped load or just feel like being different. Those outer second row seats also allow you to flip their cushions up for carrying tallish objects like pot plants. Polyvalence extrême, non?
Peugeot describes its 5008 as a compact seven-seat people carrier with all the company’s key values of style, performance, features and safety, along with the multitasking benefits of an MPV. Good news for those tiring of the company’s signature huge toothy-grin grillework is a much smoother, almost pretty face for the 5008. It makes the car seem more accessible and easier to accept. At least your vulgar mates won’t call it “butt-ugly” as they might do should you arrive in a 3008.
The South African range consists of three variants: ‘Active’ versions with a choice of 1600 cc turbocharged petrol or two-litre diesel engines fitted with six-speed manual transmission or the flagship 1600 cc petrol-driven ‘Allure’ model with six-speed automatic and a couple of additional features. The list of basic equipment is pretty impressive with alloy wheels, automatic lights and wipers, foldaway electric mirrors, front fog lights, ABS with EBD and BAS, autolocking, six airbags, kiddie locks and ISOFix mountings. Then there’s ESP, rear parking sensors, radio and CD unit with MP3 capability, USB with auxiliary, Bluetooth, dual zone climate control, glass sunroof and cruise control with speed limiter.
Now that you have your breath back, add electric parking brake with hill holder, self-dipping inside mirror, heads-up display for road speed and distance from the car in front and an on-board computer. The ‘Allure’ version tested gains leather seats (heated in front) and a video pack, to go with the automatic ‘box. Said video pack consists of a pair of viewing screens on the backs of the front seat head restraints, wiring and switches and a pair of Bluetooth headsets. You have to supply your own DVD player, iPod or game console - two if your angels can’t agree on what to do while travelling. Sorry about that. At least they have a couple of stash boxes under the carpeting in which to store additional discs or snacks.
Third row seats are easily deployed from behind by folding away the carpet sections covering each one and locking in place with a single tug on the straps provided. While fiddling with this, you find additional storage under these seats – versatile indeed. In the interest of full disclosure, we tried them out. It’s doable but recommended for shorter, younger people although knee room and foot space is actually quite good, even when the second row chairs are adjusted all the way rearward. There is actually little choice in this because pushing them all the way forward reduces passenger legroom to nothing and serves only to increase luggage space.
Speaking of luggage space, this grows from not very much with all seats up, to 758 litres with the third row folded away and eventually to 2506 litres with the second row collapsed. Putting the front passenger seatback down opens up a load space that’s 2,76 metres long. The hatch door opens easily with the help of gas struts.
Not mentioned, but part of the automatic transmission’s box of tricks is a three-way response program with ‘Sport’ and ‘Snow’ settings, or ‘Normal’ with both switched off. This controls accelerator and gearbox behaviours for various conditions. A gadget we found irritating on another make of car, but rather useful on the 5008, is the heads-up display. Users can decide whether to display speed alone, speed plus following distance regulation or simply switch the whole thing off. Viewing height can be adjusted too, by altering the angle of the transparent screen. It just seemed natural to use it.
Driving was a pleasure. The 115 kW engine is well suited to the 5008 and its intended role as a competent family car or small courtesy vehicle. Performance is good, if not electrifying, handling and overall road behaviour are as you would expect of a family MPV and the gearbox is smooth with snappy changes. Interior space and ride comfort is excellent, while generous glass area provides reassuring outward visibility. The Peugeot 5008 may not have four-wheel drive, but its good looks, versatility and wide variety of equipment ensure certain bragging rights of its own.
The numbers
Price: R314 300
Engine: 1 598 cc, turbocharged four-cylinder petrol
Power: 115 kW at 5 800 rpm
Torque: 240 Nm at 1 400 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,8 seconds
Maximum speed: 195 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: about 9,7 l/100 km
Tank: 60 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km
Service Plan: 5 years/90 000 km
We drove the Generation-2 version in 2020
This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.
What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so I do actually exist.
I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8