Peugeot 508 RXH estate car review

Torque show

On a 200 mile trip to and around North Wales and then a day spent in central Manchester, I averaged 57.6mpg, which for a big old bus like the RXH is not at all bad. The CO₂ emission figure is an equally respectable 107g/km, which slots the RXH into VED Band B.

Fast mover, make no mistake

It’s no slow-coach either – maximum speed is 132mph and the 0-60 dash is covered 8.8 seconds in Sport. On the open road, it is faster than that number suggests – the 50 to 75mph sprint takes just 6.6 seconds. It also handles extremely well for a high-riding estate and is a reminder that Peugeot has forgotten more about how to set up a front-wheel drive chassis than some car makers have ever known.

The RXH has, however, inherited two failings from the 508 and 3008. Firstly the b-pillars are still extraordinarily thick, which obstructed my driver-side over-the-shoulder visibility quite badly and secondly, the automatic manual gearbox is a bit dim-witted in Automatic mode.

The gearbox doesn’t always come across as a mechanical twit though. In town driving, it is actually pretty smooth, but on the open road if you put your foot down the engine revs hard before anything else actually happens. With both a torquey turbo diesel and an electric motor on hand this certainly feels odd.

Stable mates?

In Sport or 4WD, these quirks are far less noticeable with gear changes being optimised for performance in the former and the electric motor always on duty in the latter. Of course, you can put the gearbox into manual mode and change gear using the flappy paddles, which instantly solves the problem, as does not driving like a leaden footed ape.