Peugeot is a bit out of touch with what’s currently happening on the Old Continent in terms of buyers’ demand for interesting new vehicles.
Along with parent company PSA , it believes that the solution is to make a crossover out of every single darned hatchback that they have, and even the larger cars – the results of that tactic can be ghastly (don’t buy a 3008 , really) or no more than average.
However, after seeing that the luxurious yet trendy Germans over at Mercedes are having a field day selling their front-wheel drive sedan, the CLA, a vehicle also based on a hatchback, Autobild suggests that the French too want a piece of the action and are readying a rival for the swoopy sedan called the 408 GT – a Peugeot-badged Citroen DS 5LS ?
As its name suggests, this new model would slot in between the 308 and 508, while the GT part hints that they can look even further over the fence, way into the backyard of BMW and its similarly-branded models .
In addition, while it is not directly mentioned in the source article, I suspect that this 408 GT would share its underpinnings with the 308, modern torsion beam rear suspension and all. Engines would be carried over too, and may go all the way up to 266 hp if need be.
By Andrei Nedelea