EXTINCTION REBELLION
If nothing else, the modern mid-sized sedan market is no longer mundane
EVOLUTION, biologist Charles Darwin first proposed, is key to survival. Either adapt to change, or die. With hatches, SUVs and, lately, dual-cabs squeezing medium and larger sedans inextricably towards oblivion, creating yet another Camry clone nobody wants no longer cuts it.
Peugeot finally gets it with the latest 508 – a front-drive mid-sizer so utterly different from its dowdy, underperforming predecessor that surely a new name is deserved. Shorter by 42mm, 53mm lower and lighter than the 2011 original nobody remembers, it breaks convention with a far sleeker silhouette, frameless doors, a tailgate and a fiercely bold interior. A switch to the company’s lightweight tech-heavy EMP2 platform enhances the makeover’s cred.
Inevitably there is a price to pay for such progress. From $53,990 before on-road costs, the 508 GT Fastback rises some $10K over the Volkswagen Passat 132TSI Comfortline that the old bus bumbled behind, but is also a similar amount under the popular Mercedes C200, placing it in a sort of ‘premiumeconomy’ no-man’s land. Is Peugeot deluded, or is it an Audi A5 Sportback from Sochaux?
