Peugeot 308 CC

The ‘GT’ spec car costs £25k. The basic one nearly £20k. Would you pay that for a drop-top Peugeot? We’d rather have our fingers chopped off with a rusty spoon.

• Comfort

  The 308 CC has been stiffened to stop it wallowing like a drunken sow, so it's quite a bit firmer than before - mind you, that's not a bad thing. There's plenty of space up front for lounging too, though ‘four-seat' convertible is literal rather than achievable. Weirdly, if you're six foot-plus and set the seat so that your legs are in the right position, you can't reach the buttons on the dash without leaning forward. And the cabin is dreadfully boomy roof up, especially with the clattery diesel.   

  

• Performance

  There's a diesel that's borderline disastrous when you want to be swanning along in posey comfort and several other engine options that are almost too boring to talk about. Of them all, the 1.6-litre petrol is probably the best: 150bhp, 177lb ft of torque, 134mpg top end and 0-62mph in 10.8 seconds. Not blistering, but believe that you don't really want to test that chassis too hard anyway.   

  

• Cool

  This car says to onlookers ‘I know nothing about cars, or indeed anything about driving, dynamics or design. But I really want to show off.' A pretty 20-year-old girl might just scrape by in one without making people actually laugh out loud, but for anyone else it's marginal. By marginal, we mean awful. 

  

• Quality

  Big jump here for Peugeot: the 308 CC seems very nicely screwed together, ‘specially when you add on the various GT-spec bits. That roof looks a bit wobbly, what with those long scissor hinges waving in the breeze, but otherwise it feels pretty good. If you can reach it - the ergonomics are rubbish, especially the position of the pedals.   

  

• Handling

  The CC weighs some 170kg more than the basic hatch, so it never feels very game. Mind you, it's better than the last one (the 307 CC), and can go around corners relatively quickly without too much drama. Not exactly fun, though. 

  

• Practicality

  The four-seatedness of the 308 CC comes under immediate pressure if the front seat passengers are even moderately sized. OK, so you might be able to squeeze kids in the back, but make sure they aren't yours. Also, even though the boot is easily accessed and pretty darn big with the roof up, put the folding metal bit into the boot and you end up faced with a large letterbox through which you might post your luggage. Apparently the 308's boot is 60 litres bigger than a VW Eos' with the roof down. But only any use if you pack direct into the boot and don't use superfluous stuff like bags or suitcases.  

  

• Running costs

  Not bad at all. Though the starting price of £19,495 still seems steep. Insurance is cheap enough and you should be able to do a deal with Peugeot. Watch the residuals, especially if you try and sell it in the dark depths of winter.