March 28, 2024

2015_Peugeot_508_SW_012The second of 3 Peugeots we were able to experience during our European trip was this Peugeot 508 SW RXH-BL 2.0 BHDi with 180 European BHP. The 508 SW RXH is based on the 508 SW, but has a very upgraded SUV type of appearance with higher and wider and gets more rugged looking bodywork. It also features the same hybrid engine, which combines a diesel engine to drive the front tyres and an electric motor to turn the rears, as the 3008 HYbrid4. Because of its four-wheel drive abilities, and the fact that it’s only available in one trim level with all the luxury equipment you could need, it’s a direct rival for the Audi A4 Allroad and Volkswagen Passat Alltrak.

The exterior design really sets it apart from any other 508 SW, clearly more rugged and with among others the extra LED lights in the lower front bumper, quite an upper segment appearance indeed.

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Over the course of 2 weeks we’ve driven this car from the Netherlands through the Channel tunnel to the UK, and from there on to Italy, over the Alps and through the Italian summer heat. All in all the car performed more than excellent. It offered plenty of room for all to travel in total comfort. Even finding our way through the vast chaos of one-way streets in London was no problem for this Peugeot. The stress was purely on us for the useless waste of time the new layouts of the London streets post to the unaware tourist. London truly is a trap. It might be aimed to not let people in, but in doing so also makes it bloody difficult for people to escape the chaos as well. I honestly could write a whole separate article on what I really thought of driving through London after having not done so for nearly 17 years, and it wouldn’t be good.

We drove the Peugeot through all kinds of weather conditions, from heat in Italy to vast rain and thunderstorms in the Swiss Alps, steep mountain roads on the Grossglockner in Austria and of course the inevitable Autobahn in Germany, and I must say, the sheer exhaustion was not due to the car at all, it was purely doing so much mileage. But, bless this Peugeot, it came equipped with a massage function in the drivers seat, and while standing in the hours long traffic jam trying to cross the Channel Tunnel back to civilization, that massage function was put to very good use.

I do have one point of concern though: The built-in GPS was at certain points vastly off, so much so that I had to switch to the Google Maps directions to get out of the unknown areas the Peugeot had guided me to. I thought initially that it was just in London, since it took us well over 2 hours to do a 45 minute trip. Maybe the consistent useless barrage of one-way streets was reaping havoc to the system. But then it also occurred in really simple areas where things were quite straight through, like on the Autobahn in Germany trying to escape the multitude of constructions zones that have to be done right when the tourist season starts.

What I did like, both on the Peugeot GPS as well as on the Google Maps GPS was the announcement of known speed limits. The Netherlands and France are keen users of speed traps to create vast amounts of extra income, and I did manage to avoid quite a few of them. Alas, not all of them unfortunately, since there are so many traps out everywhere, but I did manage quite a few.

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