Peugeot 3008 car review – ‘It's funny-looking’

I can get you to 128mph no problem, it seems to say, but wouldn't you rather enjoy the scenery?

The Peugeot 3008 has sleek, long lines in the body, then an abruptly curtailed snout, as if it's been punched in the face. Inevitably, then, I started to wonder why someone might want to punch it in the face. This ridiculous Peugeot fascination with vista, a huge great windscreen delivering less-than-brilliant visibility, thanks to its very shallow angle and hefty A-frame? I could live without that. The highly effective fragrance diffuser that gave the eerie impression of having swapped one's regular family for aliens or furniture? That was a bit prissy. But overall, no: it would be fanciful to bear ill will towards this car. It is trying its best, goddammit. Its face looks like that only to reduce its dimensions and kerb weight while keeping its boot capacity.

Over the years, I've noticed I rarely ask passengers how comfortable they are, preferring instead to stare at them now and then, and observe how comfortable they look. This is a spacious back row, with a lot of headroom and a high seat, so they look rather regal. The driver and front passenger, likewise, have a lot of space, most noticeably in the area of the elbows. Highly gesticulate-prone people, who both like an array of drinks and always arrive in a car bursting with oddments, will find almost nothing to argue about, which - vexingly for this superior cabin - they won't even notice until they're in a smaller car and start knocking over each other's coffees again.