The beautiful blending of senses

MANILA, Philippines – If I had to name my personal favorite in Peugeot Philippines’ lineup of locally available cars, it would have to be the 308. I like compact cars, especially for the tight alleys and tricky parking spaces in Manila—and I value fuel efficiency, not only for economic reasons, but also to be more sensitive to our ever-so-violated environment.

But having named all these affinities, what usually sets a car apart for me is the driving enjoyment it provides. And for me, this means the car’s nimbleness and uphill pulling power. What makes me happy is confidence in overtaking and thrust on demand—within a satisfyingly safe body, without having to guzzle fuel within this course of delightful driving. And to my pleasure, I found many of these qualities I’ve been looking for in the new 308.

The Peugeot 308 is simple in design, and I guess that’s pretty consistent with its minimalist i-Cockpit, that is architectured in such a way that the dash layout and instrument clusters are uncluttered, but largely intuitive. I did not really have to think when I reached for the shortcut buttons or the panel of the touchscreen. There have been times when I’ve sat in a new car, and found myself a tad overwhelmed with all the switches and controls.

It obviously came as a pleasure when I was invited to join a Peugeot-led 308 drive up the hills of Tagaytay. It was, after all, another chance to enjoy some spirited driving, amid cooler weather, on a weekday morning (and therefore, without the weekend gridlock of Tagaytay). Our destination was a newly opened property with a restaurant named Domaine; and our objective there was even more exciting: to experience some blind tasting of food that we were challenged to identify in order to test our prowess in telling different aromas, tastes and textures.

Our convoy took the Canlubang route, and it was a well-thought choice, as the steep hills immediately had the 308 showing off its climbing capabilities. Not bad for a 1.6L engine, I affirmed to myself. There was absolutely no point in time when I felt any driving compromise while climbing uphill. Yes, this compact car could truly flex muscle.

A significant reason for the 308’s zippiness is its reduced weight. It’s lighter because of a special chassis based on Peugeot’s EMP Modular platform—a new platform in which 112 new patent applications were used. Another is its low center of gravity, which graces the car with good handling skills.

Driving the 308 did not feel like I had to make big sacrifices in the name of performance. In fact, it was more comfortable than I expected. My seat had height and lumbar adjustments which I greatly appreciated (read: #smallpeopleproblems), and the steering wheel was compact and nice to the touch.

The car consistently pointed to the direction where I would steer it to with ease. The electric power steering made the wheel light to maneuver, and the car responded obediently to my driving inputs.

Furthermore, the car adequately blunted out outside noise and never gave me a scare even when I had to stop along a steep uphill because it had Hill-Start Assist automatically engaged the entire time, so I never rolled back a little after coming to a full stop on inclines. I was actually not aware that the car had this feature in the beginning, until I noticed that it was conveniently holding the car during unavoidable steep-hill situations, even as my foot left the brakes. (It does that for you for about two seconds, so the transition to the accelerator is seamless.)

After we experienced our blind tasting class, our contingent proceeded to the mountain resort of Crossroads Tagaytay for some lovely photo opportunities. The property was, again, a hilly place, but it was really the least of our worries as the 308 blazed through. What I found nice to show in the pictures were the 308’s front headlamps, which were in full LED.

The 308 is a fully Euro-6 compliant vehicle, which makes it more environmentally sensitive than the rest, and among the few Euro-6 vehicles currently available in our country. It has a 385-liter boot volume that is further expandable if you fold the rear seats down, and this luggage space size is one of the biggest available in its car category. It therefore does not come as a surprise that it was named the European Car of the Year at the 2014 Geneva International Motor Show.

The highlight of our day’s recreational activities was the blind testing at Domaine, where we familiarized ourselves with the elements of flavor, which were identified as the ingredients’: season, taste, texture, aroma, weight, volume and ‘it’ factor – the summation of which, makes or breaks the taste of the final product.

Dan Barber is quoted as saying “The greatest lesson came with the realization that good food cannot be reduced to single ingredients. It requires a web of relationships to support it...” And perhaps the message Peugeot wanted to get through here is that the beauty of the 308 is beyond the quality of its workmanship or aesthetics or comfort or performance individually; but is in fact, the blended sum of all those... in a complex, French kind of way.