Peugeot 208 announced.

This is a very important car for Peugeot as it has been a long time since they unveiled the 207. Well in truth it was about six years ago which in the grand scheme of things isn't that long.

But consider how competitive the supermini class is and how many cars get released into this sector then you quickly find that actually a car released six years ago is a car that was released before the dinosaurs existed. And so it turns out to be as in a recent issue of Autocar the 207 came last out of 15 or something cars.

So naturally Peugeot needed a new car and recently it announced the new 208. Peugeot says that the 208 has the highest specification overhaul ever in one of their road cars with the new 208 being sleeker and lighter even though it has the same wheelbase.

Peugeot have been hit hard with criticism about the 207 being numb and boring to drive and are responding by injecting some of the energy from the 205 into the new car. But how do they intend to do this? That is the million smackaroo question.

Firstly the 208 is 173kgs lighter than the 207. This alone should make it more responsive but on top of that the 208 will be shorter and it has (as I've previously stated) the same size wheelbase. All of that added together sounds promising but mostly meaningless so let's move on to something easier to comprehend.

Power figures are expected to range from 75 to 100 brake horse power. This is just about the same power as the outgoing 207. Difference is that the 207 used 1.4 to 1.6 litre engines where this new car will use 1.0 and 1.2 litre engines. So far the main headlines belong to the diesel engines as it has been claimed they can do 83mpg. That is a bloody amazing but there is a slight problem with that.

This car is supposed to be exciting and a return for the spirit of the 205. Diesels aren't that. By that I mean exciting. However Peugeot have decided to bring back the gti name and this should change things. So far no official details have been given about the plans for the gti but it should be interesting.

The main hope is that the new 208 will be more modern and up to date. The interior is said to be simple with a smaller steering wheel and a raised instrument panel. High quality materials has also been mentioned. I don't anything about the exterior yet but I imagine it'll have 207 like features. I suppose what it all comes down to is just how much will all this amazing Peugeotness cost? I'm going to be honest and tell you I have got no clue, literally none.

In any case this new car sounds intriguing which I guess is important. Even so that is all I have for you so I'll try to get an image and say thankyou for reading and come back tomorrow.