In January of this year I learned that the taxation on lease cars would change in Juli of 2012 (taxation based on the car pollution / CO2 emission gasses). This could mean that certain types of cars would be (way) more expensive if you leased them. Since my current lease contract at the time would expire in May, I wanted to make sure that I could lease a new car under the 'old' tax rules for lease cars.

My old (lease)car was a Honda Civic 1.8 Executive (with all the bells and whistles) which I loved very much. The car was relatively small, and drove like a dream (compared to my earlier cars). Unfortunately, the Civic was no longer an option, so I was in the market for a new (and preferably) cheaper lease car.

Querying the lease company's website I learned that there was (or would be) a 'cheap' hybrid car available from Peugeot. The new Peugeot 508 Hybrid4 would be available from around April of 2012 starting @ €42,000. Based on the price I didn't think I would qualify, but since there's a (weird) relation with the amount of taxes, consumer price, and (after lease)popularity on lease cars and the amount of money you can spend on a lease car, I was able to get one.

My old Civic was taxed @ 25% for a €29k car (with relatively high pollution parameters). The 508 with all bells and whistles came around €46k, but is taxed @ 14% (since it's a Hybrid diesel with low pollution/CO2 gas emmision rating). This means, that I could drive the newer, bigger, more luxurious car for basically the same money (it turns out that the 508 Hybrid4 is about €20 cheaper per month for me).

At the time of ordering, there wasn't a 508 Hybrid4 available in the Peugeot Experience Center for a test drive. There was a 5008 with the same engine available. After driving the 5008 3008 Hybrid4 and a new 508 with a diesel engine I filed the paperwork (after being guaranteed that the car would be delivered before July 1st, 2012) in February.

After a couple of weeks I learned that the car would arrive at the end of May (Yihaaaa).

Last Wednesday, I was able to trade my Civic for the 508 Hybrid4, and what a beautiful car it is (it was my first real encounter with the 508 Hybrid4). After a quick instruction from the dealer I drove of... Well sort of, since I'm not used to driving cars with a automatic gearbox.

The first thing I noticed is that there is really too much driver distraction with all the LCD screens, lights, buttons etc. Man, there are like a gazillion things to look at on the dashboard and console.

Now some of the things I noticed about the car (good and bad);

Driving comfort

The Diesel Hybrid4 engine has 200hp under the hood. Definitely more than your average commuter hybrid car. This is really noticeable when you engage the 'Sport' setting on the car. The 'Auto' setting is the default setting which is for economic driving. When traveling longer distances @ higher constant speeds you don't really feel the difference. And every time you stop and start the car, the setting goes back to 'Auto'.

UPDATE: Getting the car to start is kinda cumbersome at some point. So many parameters you have to check/consider. First, I tend to forget to put the gear back in Neutral. When you want to restart the car (press the brake, and start button), you have to put it back to Neutral (press brake and start again) before the car can actually start. If you haven't done this, all light and screen will have lit up as normal, but you can't drive away. Normally, you would notice this when the engine didn't fire up, but since it's an electric engine... You don't hear it.

I've taught myself not to (try to) drive away if there's no HUD visible. That seems to do the trick. So bank robbers beware; this is no fast getaway car. You'll be in jail even before you figured out what you forgot in your start-up-sequence.

Seats

I ordered the leather (electric) adjustable seats, which I need to get used to. My Civic had harder and more sports-like seats. The electric customization part of the seats is excellent. No problems with that at this moment.

Safety

Something I hope I don't need, but there's a SOS services that comes with the car. Just press two buttons, and your location is transmitted to the emergency services to rescue you. When you're in real trouble, the car can send the distress message without your input. You need to sign some sort of privacy waver for this to have it enabled, because they (Peugeot) can track you if they need to.

Controls

The most used controls of the car are (as it should) located on or around the steering wheel, and they are intuitive. I do have an issue with the separation of the audio controls (compared to the Civic). On the left part of the steering wheel is the volume located, while the track selection is located on the right.

Audio

I opted for the JBL audio system in the car. When I compare that to the custom setup in my old Civic, it's not that good, but then again; the old car had a custom designed audio system, and the JBL one is more generic. Also something I probably need to get used to.

UPDATE: Getting used to it wasn't that bad. The fact that you can set different audio settings for the different sources / inputs is excellent (and weird in the beginning).

UPDATE2: Apart from an iPod, or USB Stick, you can also use an USB-powered hard disk with music on it. The only thing is that you need a cable with two USB connectors to supply the hard disk with additional power. The USB port alone can't deliver enough power. I tested it successfully with a 320GB FreeCom XXS drive.

Peugeot 508 Hybrid4 with USB powered harddisk in console

iPod / iPhone / Mediaplayer integration

I use an old iPod Classic in my car for listening to music, audiobooks, and Podcasts. This integrates into the audio system by a USB connection in the middle console of the car. Operating the mediaplayer is relatively easy, but also something you need to get used to. Let's just say that the interface is not designed by Apple.

Bluetooth phone

The car is able to connect to your phone (or the other way around), and this will enable you to call contacts on your phone by using the car interface (controls on the wheel, and/or dashboard). This works good, and the audio is excellent. The only downside is (and for this I blame Apple... Who would have guessed?) that the Bluetooth connection can also be used to play the content on your iPhone. So when I'm flipping through the audio sources of the car, the iPhone starts playing music, or whatever is on. There is no way to tell the iPhone that Bluetooth can only be used for the phone-part and not for playing music.

UPDATE: The car won't turn off (that happens to electric cars, I guess) when you exit the car while being on the phone. Even when you route the audio directly to the phone instead of the cars Bluetooth before exiting the car. Weird...

Interior (storage) space

There's more than enough room for 4 adults in the car. Even in the back there's more than enough room for people with a length of around 1.90m (I'm 1.89m). There is a shortage of storage space in the passenger compartment. The glove compartment is relatively small (compared to a smaller Civic), and the space in the middle console is tiny. You do have relatively large compartments in the 4 doors, but there are open/visible for prying eyes. Those are fine for storing cleaning stuff, food/candy etc.

The booth is large, larger than the booth of the Civic, but according to people who had an original 508, the storage space in the booth is quite a bit smaller. Main reason is that the space is used to store the batteries for the electric engine. So no complaints on my part, but if you've driven an old-skool 508, you might be disappointed.

Displays

As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of displays in the car. E.g. navigational information is displayed on three displays in the car; the dashboard/console, in the heads-up-display (HUD) and on a screen between the power usage meter and speedometer. You can turn each one off individually though. The navigational info in the HUD is nice, since you don't have to move your eyes away from the road that much.

I'll update this post when I have more information to share.

Driving the car

Driving an automatic takes getting used to... a lot. The fact that the left leg doesn't do anything is strange in the beginning. Especially in times when you hit the brake a little to hard with your left leg (in a reflex). Instant stoppage is the result. Something not everyone can appreciate.

The 'auto' mode is the default setting (and also the most economic). The car reacts kinda slow. It almost feels like the car needs to think what to do before actually doing it. The 'sport' setting is completely different (and less economic). You hit the accelerator, and the car reacts almost instantly. With 200hp on all 4-wheels.... Yihaaaa

NOTE: When I arrived at the dealer to pick up the car, they told me that Peugeot had adjusted the emission pollution, and that the car would stay at the 14% tax level, even after July first 2012. It seems that the Dutch (lease)car market is profitable for Peugeot, and they went the extra mile to make sure the stayed under the pollution limit.

Peugeot 508 Hybrid4 Review