As per title, the PCP on my Peugeot 3008 PHEV, is coming to an end in the next couple of weeks (technically I am Voluntary Terminating the PCP a month early) and I'm sad that the car didn't work out as well as I hoped.

The car itself is great. It was pretty faultless whilst I had it, although it suffered well over a month unable to be used, after I blew a tyre out in a pothole one rainy Manchester evening. Turned out there were no comparable tyres in the country. I tried every avenue, including Peugeot themselves, but it was a big "no" from everyone. But that aside the car was very reliable - oh and the tyres are freely available now

Good points

The interior, which is a really nice place to spend time. Anyone remembering Peugeot from the 80/90/00s would be surprised by the quality and general style of the thing. They have gone down a contentious route of placing the speedo display above the eye-line of the steering wheel. I didn't even notice on the test drive and found it natural and worked brilliantly, others disagree

The switchgear, especially the metal piano key buttons are a tactile delight and massage seats were a fun option that I rarely used. The only thing missing in the spec was a sunroof (I don't like them anyway) and wireless Android Auto/Apple carplay. This is easily fixed with a cheap Amazon dongle that plugs into the car in place of your phone connection and works seamlessly as a conduit for wireless operation. Great fix

The ride quality is great, as the car is quite softly sprung (remember those days when cars were just so, I'm looking at you, you naughty stiff German cars). It does roll a fair bit in corners, but I quite enjoyed the challenged of keeping speed up on a cross-country blast, it was much more of a challenge than regular modern cars, especially VAG, BMW and their ilk. The gearbox was an 8 speed slushmatic and worked really well, even if the flappy paddles were connected to the gearbox via a dialup modem.

Also, suprisingly, the performance could be described as quite brisk in a straight line and quite scary in a combination of challenging corners. This is because, quite incongruously, my 3008 had a 1.6 petrol engine and two electric motors. This gave a limited power of 300bhp! So the car could certainly pick up its heels and head off like a scaled cat (well, comparatively speaking).

Not so good points and the main reason the car was a disappointment.

The PHEV bit! I admit the car was an experiment for me but as it turned out, the real world running costs, mainly the economy, were a big disappointment. Ok, I could charge at home, but my job entails that I needed to charge the car many, many times away from home. At this point it becomes very expensive and I would have been better off buying a standard 2.0 petrol car in this regard. Another issue is range. Peugeot claim "up to" 39 miles of electric range, but in reality low 20s is your lot in summer and less than this in winter, at least with all the usual toys turned on. This has the effect of you driving around dragging a dead-ish heavy lump of a battery, which doesn't help your overall fuel economy. Ideally you fully charge the car and use the satnav as the car will determine how to use the EV side in conjunction with the ICE and meter it out so you finish your journey with zero charge and maximum MPG. Then of course you have a flat battery and if you are away from home, you need to find a charger again (at great cost) and this brings me to the other miserable 'feature', charging speed! Boy, or girl, is it slow! Because the car uses a 300V architecture, it charges quite slowly not helped by an inbuilt inverter that limits you to 16amps, so the assumed 10KwH of available charging required (a couple of KwH is reserved for the cars general running, (things like heating etc) in reality turns out to be nearer 11Kwhs or more, due to inefficacies of charging and takes around 3.5 hours or so. It's basically a pain. In reality, the car has been driven around with a flat traction battery for much of it's life :(

The massive discount I got when purchasing the car on PCP (£17K) has meant crippling poor residual. My car is in negative equity to the tune of around £2-3K. Luckily the benefit of PCP/HP protects you from this burden.

So my thoughts overall are these. It's a great car to own, except for the above and the fear that the extraordinary complexity of operation in its drivetrain, will lead to a very expensive vehicle for future owners somewhere down the road. To see graphics of the car running in real time, switching a combination of engine, front electric motor, rear electric motor or any combination of the above, coupled with recharging off the front motor, rear motor or ICE (which it does regularly) beggars belief. It works seamlessly, but it is terrifyingly clever to watch operate and hence when it goes wrong, it will rival brain surgery in its difficulty to repair. The car would have been a better fit for me if it had been simply a 1.6 litre engine with a simple 4x4 facility. Certainly would have been lighter. I think I can recommend this model as a great value one, just avoid the PHEVs if you travel around a bit.

My replacement car is a petrol one, has teeny bit of mild hybriddy, 4x4 and at least on the motorway, is much more economical. It's ride quality however, is a polar opposite. I'm going to check the transport chocks haven't been left in :D

On 26/01/2026 at 06:40, Lady Elanore said:

My replacement car is a .....

... is a... ???

C'mon, spill, don't keep us waitin'

When I bought my vRS, back in 2015, it was a bit crashy. Yep, sure enough, transport blocks were still there 🙄

Gaz

31 minutes ago, Gaz said:

... is a... ???

C'mon, spill, don't keep us waitin'

When I bought my vRS, back in 2015, it was a bit crashy. Yep, sure enough, transport blocks were still there 🙄

Gaz

V12 BMW 🤷‍♂️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbIGZrpXJlk

I reckon she's back to a Vitara...

I'd love a V12 but can't afford to run one. I've still got my Jag, which interestingly enough is being worked on at the minute. A bit of external trim was starting to come away last year and after a botched attempt to fix it by the local dealership (Williams) owing to a claimed damaged part being sent, they are having a second go today...

Unfortunately, I was told it would take 2-21/2 half hours to replace. It's a Jag, so large bits of internal stuff has to be removed to fix the teeny external trim. Anyhoo I opted to wait and so at the appointed hour of 11:00 I dropped the car off - actually I was a little early.

I've now been sat here for over 3 hours and the best I can get out of them is "I dunno when it will be ready". The very nice chap who picks the cars up and takes them around to the workshop is trying his best and reckons it will be another 30 minutes, but I'm not holding my breath. Getting ready to have a calm, but rather direct conversation with someone. Great service for a car that was allegedly over £100k when it was new (I didn't pay that of course and it's on a PCP). All I want is to be kept informed of the delay and a time when it should be done, It is only a piece of external trim (goes around the rear window). Funnily enough, I received a potential theft alert around 12:30 which was the time they disconnected the battery. I reckon this means they started work on the car 90 minutes late, which as a customer that is waiting is a bit crap imho.

As for new car, it is a 2.0 petrol, is 4x4-ish and is not a BMW (Oh and it's an 8 speed DCT). I got £6.5k off, it's on 3.8% PCP and has 2 free services. It's also grey as they don't do colours in this car any more it seems. It comes with a 14 year olds wet dream of a rear roof spoiler as it is a standard fit and they all have them !!!! I'm too old for this car. It's also not a super hatch/coupe

Actually, come to think of it, I sat around at the same dealership (Williams next to the Trafford Centre) the last time waiting for the trim to be fixed. It's only when I chased that up, I was told "oh, it looks like the part is damaged so you'll have to book it in again"....nice of them to tell me as I sat patiently waiting for news of the job being finished.

I'd go elsewhere, but the alternative is Sytners, where I bought it. I've still not had a single follow-up call from them about the car since purchase (2 years ago) and a salesman and a 'Tech wizard' both failed to return my last email. Jaguar are not helping themselves.

So far I've spent a total of 5 1/2 hours waiting in total for this bit of trim to be fixed!!!!!

Mercedes AMG GLA 45 S 4matic+ ???

Edited 28 January28 Jan by skomaz

1 hour ago, Lady Elanore said:

So far I've spent a total of 5 1/2 hours waiting in total for this bit of trim to be fixed!!!!!

Way past time for a 'calm' discussion then!

What's your standard waiting time rate?

1 hour ago, skomaz said:

Mercedes AMG GLA 45 S 4matic+ ???

Gorra be surely - or a variant thereof?

Unless it’s a … it’s a V12 Vitara 😁

But if I’m a guessin’, I’m still sticking to my guns - Hyundai i30 🤷‍♂️

Gaz

43 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

Way past time for a 'calm' discussion then!

What's your standard waiting time rate?

After 4 hours I got the car back. Not washed (I didn't want it washing, but they hadn't asked anyway). So a total of two visits and 6 hours waiting for a bit of plastic trim to be replaced (it is a bigger job than you might think).

I've had a gentle but firm word, things will be 'forwarded,' the Sales manager has been strapped to the Rack, the Dealer Principle has been recalled from his around the world cruise and the Area Manager has been awakened from his cryo-sleep....or on the other hand, bugger-all has/will happen.

Edited 29 January29 Jan by Lady Elanore

1 hour ago, skomaz said:

Mercedes AMG GLA 45 S 4matic+ ???

12 minutes ago, Gaz said:

Gorra be surely - or a variant thereof?

Unless it’s a … it’s a V12 Vitara 😁

But if I’m a guessin’, I’m still sticking to my guns - Hyundai i30 🤷‍♂️

Gaz

One of you is very close, probably the 8 speed is the giveaway? (and I suspect you are fully nerded up on these sorts of things). But it isn't a hyper hatch like the RS3/A45. Although given the choice between A45 and Vitara V12, I know which one I'd like to have a blast in. It isn't the i30 nice car though, that it is.

A35 (with stupid big roof spoiler). A lot cheaper than the equivalent BMW, VW, Cupra, Audi. It's just a shame Skoda doesn't do a Vrs 4x4.

A45 or A35 ?

A45

A35

Gonna be the divil of a job getting spares for either :(

That A35 is very pretty

2 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

One of you is very close, probably the 8 speed is the giveaway? (and I suspect you are fully nerded up on these sorts of things).

I just thought "it's Lady E so it's got to be prestige of some sort" and it was the only 4x4 type thing I could think of that has a 'halfords' roof spoiler... 🤣)

Edited 28 January28 Jan by skomaz

3 hours ago, olddog said:

A45 or A35 ?

A45

A35

Gonna be the divil of a job getting spares for either :(

The damn fools have put the A45 spoiler on the wrong end!

1 hour ago, skomaz said:

I just thought "it's Lady E so it's got to be prestige of some sort" and it was the only 4x4 type thing I could think of that has a 'halfords' roof spoiler... 🤣)

I wouldn't say it has to be prestige. I've had a Hyundai Kona and a couple of Vitaras in recent history But I agree the Plymouth Speedbird spoiler is comical and if I was keeping the car, I'd have it replaced with the standard spec one. But seriously, the current deals on the A35 are strong (and non-negotiable). I did get an alleged ceramic detail and a full tank on delivery.

The car isn't as well built inside as the M135, but it doesn't suffer from the weird FSD bouncy thing that the BMW has going on over lumpy roads. It feels like their boffins got their sums wrong. Having said that, the A35 ride is always busy and firm and feels like a sheepdog wanting to go chase some woolly friends around the place.

It does have an amazing "ooooh" factor inside however and the economy on the motorway is better than my PHEV was when it had run out of charge (which was most of the time).

The A35s downside (and also one of its strengths) is the way the suspension is bolted to the car (imho). It is very similar to the way BMW does its M cars; a lack of bushes, a shear panel (that's what the blurb says anyway) and a rear subframe bolted directly to the car (get me and my fancy car BS). It creates a lot of road noise and the spec I have is dropped 10mm further which not only gives the car a ground clearance similar to my F Type, but feels like it has compromised the travel of the springs, so much so, that a pothole is quite an adventure. Also, rubber band tyres probably don't help. But it is a long time since I had a proper hot hatch and at least for now, I'm enjoying the chuckability and terrier like approach to handling. And apart from the usual DCT crudeness as the car is coming to a stop and moving off again just as the car is about to come to rest, it is very quick and very smooth. The exhaust note is even quite nice and fruity, a rarity these days and funnily enough the car sounds better than the A45.

One huge annoyance and It's not really directed at the A35 in particular, are the nanny systems. The beeps and bongs are ludicrous. Every time you set off you need to go to different menus to disable the speed limit warning, you can stop the bongs very easily as there is a permanent shortcut on the screen, but the speed sign on the dash and head-up display flashes constantly until it too is disabled. Also, the ruddy lane keeping assist resets every time you start the car! You can make shortcuts for things, but they aren't all in the same place....arghhhhh.

But another plus is the inbuilt camera that looks for cars in front of you so it can adapt the headlight beam, can be used as a video recorder. You have to pay MB (its a retroactive thing surprisingly, done after I received the car) a bit of extra cash in order to access this function of course but it means no wires or obvious camera to be nicked, sitting on your windscreen. You do have to enable it every time you start (thank you EU nannies), but this can be done with a direct voice command if you like, as you don't even have to use the wake up phrase "hey mercedes". There are several of these 'Direct' phrases like "next track" "increase temperature" and so on. Makes things a little easier and so far works well and understands my accent. Funnily enough, when you increase the temp, the turbine air vents glow red and when you drop the temp, they glow blue Very silly but a nice touch.

I had also looked at the Cupra Formentor and the Golf R, but they were out of my price league. So even though the A35 isn't quite the quickest kid on the block, it is great fun and I'm enjoying getting to grips with it.

Edited 28 January28 Jan by Lady Elanore