Peugeot 5008 Review 2024

The Peugeot 5008 is undoubtedly one of the best cars of its type. Importantly, it has the practicality and versatility to match any of its seven-seater SUV rivals, while it’s also comfortable, entertaining and refined to drive, and comes well stocked with luxury and safety kit. Even better, it’s more stylish than most rivals, and has a jaw-droppingly attractive interior. There are some absolutely cracking cars in this class, including the Skoda Kodiaq, SEAT Tarraco, and Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace. However, the Peugeot stands comparison with the very best of them. Read on for our full review of the Peugeot 5008.

They say good things home to those who wait, and looking at the Peugeot 5008, they may well have a point. You see, it took Peugeot a wee bit of time to get the car right. The first generation 5008 was good on practicality and everything, but it had some fairly fundamental flaws.

The ride was a bit firm, the quality was a bit iffy in places, but most importantly, it looked horrendous. With an MPV shape that Peugeot tried to embellish with a few SUV-style touches, the result was awkward and unattractive. It still did okay sales-wise, so the appetite was clearly there, but it could’ve been so much more.

Happily, Peugeot learned the lessons when cooking up the latest incarnation, and the result is unquestionably one of the finest cars of its type. It’s a proper SUV this time, with no schizophrenia about its styling, and one of the more handsome ones in the class at that thanks to its bold, flamboyant features.

If you really want flamboyant, though, all you need to do is open a door and look inside. The interior in this car is like nothing else in the class. With sophisticated design, gorgeous materials and thoughtful, stylish finishes, it feels more comparable to more expensive SUVS from the likes of Audi and Mercedes than it does to the Skodas and SEATs of the world.

What’s more, the 5008 also has the other important bit of any seven-seat SUV - practicality - nailed, too. One of the roomier cars of its type in any of its seven seats, it’s better than most rivals when faced with the task of carrying seven adults.

And, with seven individual seats that fold and flip in all sorts of genius ways, it’s a versatile load-carrier, too. Yes, one or two key bits of equipment are reserved for the range-topping models, but most versions come with most of what you need for a comfortable family life.

And talking of comfort, the ride that was brittle and unsettled in the first-generation car has become much, much more forgiving.

This is now one of the comfiest cars in the class, and in a car that’s designed to ferry lots of people around, that’s the most important thing. That handling is stable and assured, meanwhile, while even the entry-level petrol and diesel engines provide impressive punch, excellent economy and really good refinement.

Granted, it’s not perfect. The infotainment system can be confusing and frustrating to use, even after you’ve familiarised yourself with its foibles, and if you go for a version with the panoramic roof (standard on the top two trims, optional on most of the others), the amount of headroom you get is absolutely ruined. Other than that, though, there’s very little to complain about.

The 5008 is one of the comfiest cars in its class. Whatever your speed and whatever the surface you’re on, the soft suspension does a great job of mopping up lumps and bumps of all shapes and sizes, and only the largest, sharpest edged potholes will have any chance of sending any shockwaves through to the cabin.

It feels just as at home plodding through town as it does belting up a motorway, making this a comfortable way to get to any destination. The ride quality does dip a bit if you go for a car with the optional 19-inch wheels, though.

The forgiving nature of the suspension does mean that you feel a shade more body lean than in rivals, meaning that changes of direction don’t feel quite as crisp or as agile, but the 5008 feels far from clumsy.

The steering takes some getting used to, because the tiny wheel makes it feel quicker than it actually is, but it won’t take you long to get to grips with.

There's one petrol and one diesel engine to pick from, which keeps matters simple with the Peugeot 5008. The petrol offering is a 1.2-litre turbo with 131PS. It has loads of urge from low revs and it keeps on pulling as the revs climb higher, so it feels decently perky and brisk, but it does need to be worked harder than some rivals at motorway pace. For those who mainly do short journeys, this is definitely the engine to have.

High-mileage drivers will probably be better off with the turbodiesel. It has an identical 131PS to the petrol, but a more substantial 300Nm of shove compared to the petrol unit's 230Nm.

The diesel is muscular enough in the bottom half of the rev range to pull the car around with reasonable urgency, even though it could never be described as fast, and it runs out of puff a bit when the revs climb higher.

Happily, the 5008 has already been smashed into various things by the experts at Euro NCAP, and it emerged with a five-star crash test rating. That’s probably because all versions come with a very useful amount of standard safety kit, including six airbags, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning and speed limit recognition and display.

All 5008s now have a tyre sealant in place of a spare tyre, but you can have a space saver spare wheel as an option. However, more is provided as you progress up the trim structure. The top two trims come with blind spot warning and a driver fatigue alert.

Only the GT has full LED lights with fog mode. The other two trims make do with Eco LED headlights.

Choose the Peugeot 5008 with the petrol engine and it can tow a braked trailer of up to 1100kg. Opt for the diesel and it ups that limit to 1200kg. Both versions have a maximum tow ball weight of 70kg.

First things first, we’d implore you not to buy a car with a panoramic roof. It absolutely massacres the amount of headroom you get.

Live without the glass above your head, though, and the problem goes away completely: front- and rear headroom isn’t class-leading, but it’s absolutely fine. Legroom is also more than acceptable in both rows - not quite as generous as in some rivals, but there’s still enough space for long limbs to stretch.

Where the middle row really impresses, though, is when you’re carrying three people there. Each member of the trio gets their own identically sized chair, which slides and reclines individually, and the cabin is wide enough that three sets of adult shoulders will fit side-by-side.

Even better, the floor is totally flat, so there’s no transmission tunnel to rob anyone of foot space. Even the extra two chairs that fold up out of the boot floor are better than most cars in the class for space, with a shade more room than you get in a Skoda Kodiaq. 

With all seven seats in place, the luggage space you get is small, but a bag-for-life's worth of shopping or two will fit. Fold the rearmost chairs, and the boot is massive at 702 litres, with a huge floor, impressive depth and completely flush sides. There’s no load lip, either, and the middle seats fold down completely flat and flush for when you need to carry much bigger loads, with up to 1940 litres of space on hand.

You’d have to venture up in the realms of much more expensive Audis and Mercs to find an SUV interior with this level of wow-factor. The reason?

Well, every surface you see and touch is immaculately finished. Not only do the materials look effortlessly classy, but the colours and textures on show also have real variety, and the way they’ve all been blended together has plainly been thought about really hard.

Yes, there are a few cheaper-looking plastics here and there, but most of them are tucked away out of sight, leaving you to soak up an impressive feeling of quality and sophistication. True, the cabin doesn’t feel quite as robust as it does classy, with the odd creak here and the odd flex there, but it’s solid enough.

All versions of the 5008 get the same 12.3-inch i-Cockpit dash arrangement, which is easy to use when you become accustomed to looking over rather than through the steering wheel at the dials.

The entry-level Active Premium+ trim comes with an 8-inch touchscreen for the infotainment, which works with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as Bluetooth and DAB radio. Move up to the Allure Premium+ and GT trims and you get a 10-inch infotainment touchscreen display. In these models, you also get voice recognition, sat-nav, and TomTom Live services to warn of speed cameras and traffic reports.

With either infotainment screen, the graphics look rather dated, and every time you jab the screen to register a command there’s a seemingly endless pause before anything happens, so you begin to wonder if your command registered at all.

Every 5008 has six speakers for the stereo, but only the GT has twin USB charging ports in the rear centre console. However, all have 12-volt charging sockets in the front and back of the cabin.

Peugeot doesn’t spare the hyperbole when it comes to the trim level names of the 5008, so the entry point is the Active Premium+. This costs £36,595 for the 1.2 litre PureTech petrol with the EAT eight-speed automatic gearbox as standard. If you want this trim with the 1.5 BlueHDi diesel motor, which has the same auto transmission, you’ll pay an extra £1940 thanks to a list price of £38,555.

Look to the Allure Premium+ trim and the petrol costs £39,175. It’s the same £1940 additional fee to move to the £41,135 diesel. However, with the top of the line GT, the petrol is £40,710 while the diesel is £42,635, which is a slightly smaller £1925 more expensive.

The 1.5 litre diesel that comes with an eight-speed automatic gearbox as standard in the 5008 now delivers up to 54.1mpg combined economy, according to official WLTP figures.

Go for the 1.2 litre petrol, which comes with the same auto gearbox, and it has its work cut out shifting the 5008. As a result, it manages a best combined economy of 46.4mpg. It emissions are also adrift of the diesels, coming in at a best of 138g/km to the turbodiesel's 137g/km. That means both 5008 models pay road tax of £255 in the first year, followed by £180 in the following years.

Most 5008 models sit in Group 21 for insurance, with only the top two trims with the diesel engine slipping one group higher to be classed in Group 22.

Many believe French cars to suffer from poor reliability, but this isn’t borne out in the various reliability surveys doing the rounds. In most of the ones we’ve seen, Peugeot puts in very solid performances indeed, including the JD Power UK Vehicle Dependability Survey where Peugeot record strong results.

Peugeot doesn’t hold back on the equipment count for the 5008 even in its starting point Active Premium+ trim. This model comes sitting on 17-inch alloy wheels, and there are aluminium roof rails, LED lights, rear privacy glass, and a reversing camera and rear parking sensors. You also have automatic headlights and wipers, cruise control, and heated door mirrors.

Inside the Active Premium+, you will find keyless ignition, air conditioning, height adjustable front seats, driver’s lumbar adjust function, and cloth upholstery. An 8-inch infotainment touchscreen is used with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, along with the 12.3-inch i-Cockpit display.

Pay the extra for the Allure Premium+ model and you gain 18-inch alloy wheels, a black-painted roof, and door and sill protectors. Blind spot detection and high beam assist help with safety, as do front parking sensors. Keyless entry is another addition, along with ambient interior lighting, rear window blinds, back seat tray tables, and half-leather upholstery.

At the peak of the 5008 line-up is the GT with its twin exhaust pipes and chrome window trims. It also has full LED headlights with fog mode, and the Drive Assist Pack. This pack comes with adaptive cruise control, Advanced Emergency Braking with camera and radar, front collision warning, and lane keep assist.

Inside, the GT enjoys blue ambient lighting, grey Alcantara dash covering, half-leather upholstery, and aluminium pedals. It also has twin USB chargers in the rear passenger compartment.