Peugeot 308 GTi 270 Review (2016)

Peugeot 308 GTI 270 (pictured) in for Review

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The Peugeot 308 GTi 270 is Peugeot’s latest effort to reclaim its crown as a maker of stunning hot hatches. We spend a week finding out if they’ve cracked it.

If you’re old enough, a Peugeot hot hatch is a car to celebrate, but for younger readers the idea that Peugeot can produce a winning hot hatch is something hard to contemplate.

We’ll resist dwelling on the notion that Peugeot had its moment in the hot hatch sun with the 205 GTI, and that it’s all been downhill from there, but – with the odd exception – there’s not been anything massively appealing in recent years to make hot hatch buyers flock to Peugeot.

But this week’s review car – the Peugeot 308 GTi 270 by Peugeot Sport – does look to be an interesting offering, and its 266bhp 1.6 litre turbo engine – lifted from the RCZ R – and its low weight do promise to make this GTi more worthy of the name than anything else Peugeot has managed in recent times.

But the hot hatch market is full of cars from VW, Renault, Ford et al, and making a mark against such serious, and well established, competition is a big mountain to climb.

308 GTi 270 – Inside & Out.

Three-door hot hatches seem to have been lost somewhere along the way, and the 308 GTI follows the pack by coming with a five-door bodyshell and, at first acquaintance, doesn’t look much more sporty than any other 308.

…it’s a look that conveys what’s to come rather more subtly than much of the competition. The 308 GTI is a properly grown-up looking hot hatch

But look more closely and all the signs are there, from a lower suspension, 19″ wheels and serious brakes, to the smattering of GTI badges and red lettering, but it’s a look that conveys what’s to come rather more subtly than much of the competition. The 308 GTI is a properly grown-up looking hot hatch.

The interior of the 308 GTI is also equally impressive, with the button count take well down thanks to the (adequate, rather than stunning) infotainment screen which controls the majority of functions, an interesting take on the steering wheel relationship to the instrument pod, with a tiny wheel sitting below the instruments, and cracking, supportive seats

The seats come with leather and Alcantara with red stitching (and even a massage function), there’s a metal gear knob with red detailing, Sat Nav, USB, DAB, Bluetooth, Climate, Cruise, Auto lights and wipers, reversing camera, parking sensors and Keyless. This test car also has an optional panoramic glass roof which makes the cabin a lighter and airier place to be.

It all adds up to a well-equipped car with decent space in the back (for a car of this class) and more than decent boot space, perhaps making the 308 GTI the most practical of the hot hatches.

308 GTi 270 – Performance and on the Road

The starting point for turning the 308 in to a proper GTi is the fitting of the 1.6 litre turbo from the RCZ R, and in the 308 it comes with 266bhp and 243lb/ft of torque, enough to get to 62mph in 6.0 seconds and yet comes with appealing headline economy of 47.1mpg (we got 32.6mpg) and emissions of 139g/km.

Peugeot has lowered the suspension by 11mm, retuned the dampers, changed the anti-roll bars and fitted new, much stiffer, springs, which you might expect will make the 308 GTi feel like a Nurburgring track car. But it doesn’t.

…the 308 Gti is impressively quick, impressively wieldy and impressively packaged. It’s very addictive

In fact it feels almost comfy, and it really is a triumph for having your cake and eating it, with lots of bite on turn-in, huge grip through a bend – and the ability to tweak the line on the throttle – and oodles of power on the way out, although you do get a wriggly steering wheel as the Torsen mechanical diff does its stuff. But it all feels beautifully controlled and appealingly tidy.

The steering is accurate although not endowed with a huge amount of feel (perhaps down to the wheel being about the size of a shirt button), and the four-pot Alcon brakes are stunningly effective (although you’ll probably end up with your nose on top of the steering wheel the first time you use them – they are very effective).

There’s also a Sport button nestling behind the gear lever which gives more edge to the throttle response, increases engine noise and turns the dials red, but we left it alone after a couple of goes – the engine noise is synthetic and the throttle response is just fine without a bit of extra responsiveness (and the instruments look better without turning red).

But the 308 Gti is impressively quick, impressively wieldy and impressively packaged. It’s very addictive.

308 GTi 270 Verdict

The hot hatch market may be ram jam full of alternatives to the 308 GTi, from Ford’s Focus ST and RS to VW’s Golf GTI and R through to appealing and quick hatches from Renault, SEAT and even Vauxhall, but the 308 GTi beguiled us.

It’s not the quickest hot hatch in the sector – especially when you start to look at the Focus RS and its 4WD and 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds – and nor is it the cheapest at £28,455 before you add options.

Peugeot has waved a bit of proper Gallic fairy dust on the 308 GTi, and managed to make it both a devastatingly effective hot hatch and a forgiving, practical family car, all with little compromise

But Peugeot has waved a bit of proper Gallic fairy dust on the 308 GTi, and managed to make it both a devastatingly effective hot hatch and a forgiving, practical family car, all with little compromise.

When the mood takes you, and a back road beckons, the 308 GTi is huge fun and impressively quick, handles exceptionally well and puts a proper big smile on your face.

But for the rest of the time – errands, meetings, kids to school – it turns in to a comfortable and practical hatchback, seemingly unaffected by the appealing hot-hatchery lurking under the skin.

It makes the 308 GTi 270 perhaps the best compromise hot hatch in its sector, and one you should take very seriously if you’re in the market for a hot hatch that needs to be more than just a weekend thrashing toy.