Peugeot 108 city car launched

Peugeot says the new Peugeot 108 has a ‘chic about town character’

‘Timeless elegance’ is the look Peugeot was going for with the new Peugeot 108, which arrives in Ireland later this year.

Describing it as ‘a perfect runabout’, the French car company says the all new 108 ‘takes small car versatility to a whole new level’.

Peugeot 108 Design Director Ivo Groën said the aim was to give the new model ‘a more premium and sophisticated feel’ in keeping with Peugeot’s upmarket move and to differentiate it from its siblings, the Citroën C1 and Toyota Aygo.

Groën added: ‘We wanted to reduce the glass and increase the sculpting of the body, and at the same time give it a timeless elegance.’

The new model is longer than its predecessor, offering a bigger boot than the outgoing city car. The boot sill has been lowered, to make loading easier.

Cabin space, meanwhile, remains almost the same and Peugeot says it’s generous enough to comfortably seat four occupants.

Available both in three-door and five-door variants, the new Peugeot 108 carries the floating front grille and lion-claw rear lamp design features of its bigger siblings, the Peugeot 208, 2008 and 308.

For the first time, a Cabrio version of this model will be available. The Top! Cabrio will have an electric fabric roof.

Peugeot says the cabin has been improved, with extra storage, better seat quality and better connectivity. There is also a ‘marked improvement’ in material quality, fit and finish in the cockpit, it says.

Three trim levels will be available – Access, Active and Allure – with a choice of four engines.

MirrorLink, which hooks up with your smartphone, is available in all but the entry level model

The driver’s seat is height adjustable in all bar the entry level Access trim and in three door models both front seats have memory settings – meaning they automatically return to their original position after rear passengers exit or enter.

The Peugeot 108 has two rear ISOFIX child seat fixing points as standard.

A multi-function steering wheel is standard on the Active and Allure trims, as is air conditioning.

A reversing camera is standard on the Allure trim.

Meanwhile, Peugeot’s 7in touch screen infotainment unit is also standard in all but the Access trim. It features MirrorLink technology which ‘allows the touchscreen to become a mirror image of any smartphone using Android, Windows, RIM [Blackberry] or iOS [Apple]’.

Ivo Groën added: ‘Connectivity was a key point for 108, which wasn’t the case with the 107 because no one had a smartphone.

‘For 108 it’s about your smartphone but in the middle of the dashboard. We wanted a very simple design horizontally and to have the vertical interface with connectivity. Everything else was built around that.’

The new Peugeot 108 is expected in Ireland later this year. Prices and Irish specifications will be announced closer to launch.

Visit the Peugeot Ireland website or its Facebook page for further details.