Two plus two doesn’t always make four

The 308 CC is a good car.

When I say ‘good’, I mean it’s quiet, has a classy interior and the PSA/BMW engine is as refined and sweet revving as ever.

It even wafted comfortably over the French roads we were driving on without flexing uncontrollably. Even better, it represents the end of the 307 CC – a whale of a car that has too often sat in front of me on the motorway with its offensively ugly bottom refusing stubbornly to get out of the way and out of my line of vision.

The 308 CC might not win any beauty contests but it is at least ungainly in a quirky way rather than the 307 CC, which is sort of quirky in the way that a bludgeoned seal is sort of quirky.

But you can read the first drive if you want to find out what the latest 308 is like to drive, here I would like to ask Peugeot what they were thinking when they stood up in the press conference and describe the car as a “genuine four seater”? Do they expect us to take their word for it and not actually attempt to contort ourselves into the back seats?

I can understand why manufacturers might insist that a car is great to look at when the majority might not necessarily agree – style is a subjective thing, as those people who actually bought a 307 CC forever proved. But rear space is a palpable, physical thing. You might as well stand up and say that two plus two equals five.

When the passenger seat in the new 308 CC was set to what I consider to be a comfortable position, I couldn’t fit my legs in the space behind and ended up sitting ‘side saddle’ style on the rear bench so that my shins didn’t forever bear the imprint of the back of a 308 CC seat. And the bad news doesn’t stop there. I’m 5’ 6”, and yet if I sat up straight my head pressed against roof when it was up.

You’ve made a good car, Peugeot, and one that represents a huge step forward from its predecessor. Be proud of that. But don’t tell the press that you’ve made a four seater when you’ve clearly made a 2+2.