Owner Review: From Kodo to French Allure, my Peugeot 5008 1.6 THP

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Basic information about my car:

2018 Peugeot 5008 1.6 THP

Reasons why I bought this car(purpose):

I bought a Mazda CX5 in 2018 due to Kudo design and also Jinba Ittai philosophy in the drive. I've been enjoying CX5 until I welcome my second child to the family. I needed more space after I fitted 2 child seats, and more seats for the weekend when I took my parents along for family days.

As such, I started looking for a second hand 7 seater SUV with remaining warranty for extra assurance. Peugeot came into the picture due to its low second hand value, therefore a 2018 Peugeot 5008 is close to the trade in value of my 2018 Mazda CX5. Therefore, I've decided to change my CX5 to 5008 in 2020, with 3 years more warranty to spare.

Car Selection Process

• I had a budget of RM 110,000
• Models that I have considered include: Mazda CX8, Mazda CX9, VW Tiguan Allspace, Nissan Serena

All of the other models considered are new cars introduced to the market, with the VW Tiguan Allspace not even brought into Malaysia yet. New car will be a bigger financial burden as compared to a slightly used car, not too old of a car but already depreciated by the first hand owner. 

Another consideration is to get a MPV like Nissan Serena which provides the best space for all models considered. However, there will be 50% of the time  where I drive this family car alone or just with my wife, therefore I still need a car that is nicer to drive than a boxy MPV.

User Experience

• I have already done 15,000 km.
• My average fuel consumption is 9L/100km.

Initially, I've prepared myself for losing some driving pleasure by switching from Mazda CX5 into Peugeot 5008. This is because I've viewed lots of car reviews on Mazda CX5 and am very convinced that it handles brilliantly. However, after driving a Peugeot 5008 for a few days, I've fallen in love with the firmer suspension.

The firm suspension gives much more confidence into corners and there are little unnecessary bounces over the humps. Although people on board can feel slightly more from road surface or driving over poorer road patches, overall, it is actually a better driving and riding experience as compared to CX5 with a softer suspension as you feel more body roll and dizziness.

Besides suspension, the 1.6 turbo in Peugeot 5008 provides much more power at lower rpm than the NA 2.0 from Mazda CX5, which is very apparent in city driving when you get out from a junction or overtaking cars in short distance. Peugeot 5008 is a punchy 7-seater SUV than its size would suggest. 

Secondly, the smaller than average steering wheel in the Peugeot 5008 makes it so much easier to maneuver a big SUV. Also, the 2 spoke steering wheel design with flat bottom & top means you can rest both of your palms on the flat steering during long journey cruising. That makes it much more relaxing than needing to grab a T-spoke steering at 4 or 8 o'clock angle constantly. 

Also, Peugeot 5008 has very comfortable seats with piping that provides very good support and comfort. As compared to Mazda CX5, the seating position of Peugeot 5008 is lower, which makes it easier to get in and out of the car, something which my elderly parents (they are also shorter than average) appreciate a lot as they almost need assistance to jump onto the seat of CX5. 

Disadvantage of switching to Peugeot 5008 is that I lost features like blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert & front collision warning & auto-braking which I get from Mazda CX5. These features are absent from my CBU imported 5008 perhaps due to cost. Note that CKD 5008 in the market now is equipped with blind spot monitoring.

The biggest problem I experienced after owning a Peugeot is the after sales service. As I bought the car as a second hand owner, in my first service interval, I enquired about the process of updating my contact details into Peugeot database so they could reach me in the future for any communication, only to find out that isn't something they really care & monitor.

The service advisor did not know what is the procedure of updating the owner details and just asked me to leave my contact on the service invoice. This could perhaps be me nitpicking as I was trying to compare against how structured & organized Mazda is. Note that Nasim still held the dealership when I bought the car. 

However, my loss of confidence really began when I requested the Peugeot Service Center to investigate some noise coming when I released my brake during cornering. It took me a few weeks, going to the center for a few times until they concluded the steering rack needs to be replaced, and they will help me to file a warranty claim for it. The steering rack costs ~RM8,000.

Warranty claim was filed in November 2020 but finally replaced in May 2021 last month, only to find out it wasn't the expensive steering rack that is causing the noise. Throughout this 6 months of waiting period, lots of calling & writing was initiated by me to try and connect the Peugeot dealer & Peugeot HQ together and escalate the issue.

There was very little urgency & willingness demonstrated by Peugeot to help their customer in the process. All of the internal communication problems surfaced to me as a customer and I even needed to help explain their process gap to them, or help them to resolve dialogues between dealer and Peugeot HQ. 

On top of that, in the last service, I was notified that my brake disc has been fully depleted, even though the car has been driven for just 38k miles. There is very little explanation given at first despite the uneven brake disc surface which might suggest the possibility of faulty parts.

However, the service center claimed this is very common to all Peugeot models, as if I should feel better hearing that I am not alone. I have no question on replacing the brake pads but I just thought the brake disc should last longer than 38k km. 

After a few consultation with external workshops and lots of emails and calls exchanges, I decided that my family safety is the priority and paid for the brake disc replacement at an external workshop who managed to convinced me not to compare the mileage against Japanese cars because continental cars offer better braking performance, therefore changing at 38k is reasonable. 

The funny thing is, after changing the worn off brake disc, the problem of noise during cornering is also resolved! That means Peugeot service center was unsuccessful in finding the root cause despite spending such a long period of time, and also replaced an expensive steering rack unnecessarily. 

Despite all the negatives of the after sale service experience, I've had some good experiences recently as my car battery went flat during the MCO period. Peugeot center sent mechanics to my doorstep to replace a temporary battery while they claim warranty for both the battery as well as alternator replacement. This is seen as a big step up in putting customers as priority. 

Pros and Cons

Pros of my car

- 7 seaters add to practicality when needed
- Firmer suspension (conti feel)
- Comfortable seats
- More power at lower rpm
- Beautiful interior design with ambient lighting at night that is pleasing to the eyes

Cons

- Exterior not as sharp looking as my previous CX5 (I still turn my head every time a Mazda passes by, they are just so good looking!)
- Lack of safety features from this CBU unit
- Very poor after sales experience (although improving now, hopefully Bermaz continues to put in effort)

Total Score: 5

Performance: 4

Quality & Features: 4

Space: 3

Ride comfort: 4

Fuel Economy: 3

Price & cost: 4

Summary:

To a new Peugeot owner like me, seeing some improvement in after sales service recently is finally some light at the end of the tunnel.

If I may offer my humble opinion, the after sale experience of Peugeot should be one of the top priority for Bermaz to fix because the brand is regarded highly in the European market, which seems like a big gap to how Peugeot is perceived in Malaysia.

If after-sale experience is no longer an issue, there are a lot to look forward to in the future for Peugeot.  

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