Peugeot 5008: Long, but for how much longer?

0 0 November 19, 2025 Edit this post

by Chris Riley

What is it?

Now in its third generation, the ''all-new" Peugeot 5008 was launched early 2024, but took a while to get here.

Based on the Stellantis group's STLA Medium platform, it is essentially a stretched version of the smaller 3008.

Cast you mind back and you may recall this car originally came with a turbo petrol or turbo diesel engine.

Back in 2013 it was described as a people mover, presumably because it offered seven seats.

Now a large SUV, the latest version is a hybrid and has seven seats too.

There's even a fully electric 5008, but it's unlikely we'll get that.

What’s it cost?

The 5008 Hybrid comes in two grades, Allure priced from $55,990 and GT Premium priced from $67,990 -- plus on-road costs.

Like a Toyota, it's a self-charging hybrid that offers a combination of convenience and low fuel consumption.

The design incorporates Peugeot's signature three-claw lights, with a redesigned face and new Peugeot badge, plus modernised "floating" spoiler.

Standard kit includes cloth trim and three-zone climate air, LED headlights, auto lights and wipers, auto dimming rear view mirror, proximity locking and unlocking, traffic sign recognition and adaptive cruise control with stop and go.

GT Premium doesn't want for much, with Nappa leather, clean air system, power adjust front seats, including bolsters and squab, heated steering wheel, massage and driver-seat memory, heated and cooling for front seats and heated rear window seats.

It also gets two-tone paint, with a black roof, panoramic split-opening sunroof, hands-free electric tailgate, adaptive LED pixel headlights, and rear full width LED tail lights.

Infotainment includes multi-connect Bluetooth, AI-powered voice control, AM and FM/DAB+ digital radio, built-in navigation, plus wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.

Six-speaker sound is standard, while the GT Premium steps up to a premium 10-speaker Focal system with an eight-channel, 690 watt amplifier.

There's also wireless phone charging, almost hidden under the dash, two USB-C sockets front and another two in the rear, along with three 12 volt sockets (one in the boot for things like a fridge).

The car supports over-the-air updates as well as remote access via the Peugeot app.

5008 has been awarded four out of five stars for safety based on testing of the smaller 3008 which is essentially the same car.

In physical crash tests the protection offered to adult and child occupants was good, with relatively low levels of risk observed in the frontal offset, full width frontal, side impact and oblique pole tests.

A 'marginal' level of protection was noted for front seat occupants in side impact crashes.

Safety kit includes six airbags, 360 degree cameras and autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with low light pedestrian and cyclist detection.

There's also Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Multi-Collision Braking, Automatic Post-Collision Braking System, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Long Range Blind Spot Detection (BSD), Lane Departure Warning (LDW) with sophisticated unmarked road edge detection.

Missing are a front centre airbag to stop heads banging, rear seatbelt reminders, reverse auto braking, cyclist door warnings, auto SOS calls and the AEB system does not react when turning across the path of an oncoming vehicle.

The outer rear seats offer two ISOFix mounting points and three top tether anchor points, but no anchors are provided for the third row.

5008 is covered by a 5-year unlimited kilometre warranty.

What’s it go like?

The French don't really get Australia.

Their cars are designed mainly for city dwellers, with small engines and modest power outputs.

Put them on Aussie country roads, with hundreds of kilometres of second-rate bitumen ahead and they are going to struggle.

The cars don't weigh much, the suspension isn't tuned for our niggling, low-amplitude bumps and they tend to move around a bit as a result.

In the city they get by, mainly on looks and the fact our market regards Peugeot as a premium brand, sitting somewhere between Honda and BMW.

The 5008 is larger than it looks and it needs to be, to fit that third row of seats.

To give it some perspective, it's 7cm longer than an Outlander, 8.6cm longer than a CR-V and 11cm longer than an X-Trail, all of which offer seven seat options.

And, at 4790mm, the 5008 is a whopping 19cm longer than a RAV4, with a 20.5cm longer wheelbase.

Even so the third row seats are small, difficult to access, offer little legroom, and are best suited to small children.

You can't put a child car seat back there either.

The second row slides, however, allowing rear seat passengers a bit of give and take when it comes to who gets more legroom.

The three seats fold individually, but three people may find the second row a squeeze.

With all three rows in use, there's 348 litres of cargo space, with the third row folded 952 litres and with both second and third rows folded 2232 litres.

Peugeot downplays the powertrain details in its specifications, putting this information last rather than first as is the norm.

Maybe that's because its a bit embarrassed by the 5008's tiny 1.2-litre, turbocharged three cylinder petrol engine with the assistance from a small battery and electric motor.

It produces just 107kW of power and 230Nm of torque from 1750 revs, with drive is to the front wheels through a six-speed (e-DCS6) dual clutch style auto.

There's three drive modes, together with steering wheel-mounted paddles for changing gears sequentially, as well as auto engine stop-start to save fuel.

Advanced grip control, a kind of of all-wheel drive, offers Snow, Sand and Mud options, in case you want to get the pretty wheels dirty.

In terms of performance, the dash from 0-100km/h takes a glacial 11.3 seconds, probably longer with seven seats filled, and it has a top speed of 197km/h.

It's hardly surprising that the smaller 3008, which is 25cm shorter and powered by the same setup -- is a fair bit quicker.

5008 is a self-charging mild hybrid, designed to recharge while decelerating and can operate in electric only mode more than 50 per cent of the time.

The electric motor produces 15.6kW and 51Nm at 4265 rpm, supported by a 0.9 kWh lithium-ion battery.

With a 55-litre tank, fuel consumption is a claimed 5.1L/100km and CO2 emissions are 116g/km, and it takes premium 95 unleaded.

We were getting 7.3L/100km after a little over 500km.

Suspension is pseudo Mac strut front and a twist beam axle at the rear.

Nineteen-inch wheels are shod with 225/55 profile rubber.

Like the 3008 the cabin is stunning.

In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two vehicles.

And, for the $3000 difference in price, we reckon you would be silly not to spend the extra for the larger model.

The surface of the dash and console are finished in a chic, denim-like material that looks cool but feels cheap, backlit by green ambient lighting.

The sweeping, 21-inch free-standing screen, seamlessly integrates the infotainment and driver displays.

The curvature brings the left hand side of the screen closer to the driver and makes it easier to read, especially the map.

A smaller secondary screen below the air vents provides shortcuts to such things as CarPlay/Android Auto, Phone, Navigation, Climate, Media and Home.

Disappointingly, however, the climate controls are integrated into the touchscreen.

That means your eyes are drawn away from the road if you’re on the move and want to change the temperature or fan speed quickly.

Peugeot calls the driver focused cabin setup i-Cockpit and it's built around a small dinner-plate-sized steering wheel and high-mounted instrument panel designed to replace the need for head-up display.

Although the steering wheel has been redesigned, line of sight feels lower and the wheel cannot be positioned as high as before, thus preventing it from obscuring the instruments.

Personally, we prefer our wheel to be set higher and further forward when driving.

Starting the car requires the start button to be pressed for a count of at least three seconds.

If you lift off too soon, you'll discover the car is still in accessory mode and have to repeat the process, which can be frustrating when you're in a hurry.

The gear change toggle, mounted high on the dash, to the left of the wheel, is not backlit and this can be somewhat disorientating at night.

Throttle response could be smoother and it is easy to press both the accelerator and brake at the same time, with unexpected results.

Having said that, 5008 gets along surprisingly well for such a small setup, with the caveats we mentioned.

Overtaking for instance can be daunting.

The steering is if anything overly sensitive, but at least the driver assist systems are not intrusive.

Peugeot was once renowned for producing its own suspension components.

Alas it does not do so anymore, but the car does corner with confidence, remaining composed with little body roll.

The brakes on the other hand are jerky and the car is difficult to control at low speed, for example when parking.

Annoyingly, putting the car into Park does not engage the parking brake.