Buy A Used Oddball Peugeot 508 PSE For Less Than A New 208

With the imminent arrival of the Peugeot e-208 GTI, it seems to French firm has rediscovered how to make cars fun again. With the exception of the flawed but charming previous form of the 208 GTI, it’s hard to argue that it had lost its way in making exciting stuff for a long time.

It had a brief flurry at trying to get back to those ways early in this decade, though, with the only road car to wear a Peugeot Sport Engineered badge. This was the Peugeot 508 PSE, a very peculiar entry into its lineage of performance cars.

First of all, it was the first time Peugeot had a crack at making a properly quick and engaging hybrid. Power came from a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine mated with two electric motors, one on the rear axle and the other directly connected to the gearbox.

Its peak power output totalled a healthy 355bhp, with a quoted 0-62mph time of 5.2 seconds. As our former Editor Matt Robinson once said, it felt ‘a bit quicker’ than that figure actually suggested, too.

It wasn’t just more power that a PSE badge brought to the 508 either. Adaptive dampers, new roll bars and wider tracks contributed to a composed chassis with a truly engaging feel to it.

Granted, the 508 PSE wasn’t without flaws. It was heavy, for a start, and the way it managed power between the combustion engine and electric motors always felt a little discombobulated.

Then, there was the price. Before its discontinuation last year, a new 508 PSE would’ve cost you north of £50,000. For a car wearing a Peugeot badge, that was a hard pill to swallow.

Yet, being an oddball car wearing a Peugeot badge, depreciation has hit hard, and that throws the PSE into tempting realms. Our usual browse through the classifieds has found an SW, the estate, for £19,299.

Not only is that comfortably less than a third, it also makes it cheaper than Peugeot’s cheapest new car, the entry-level 208 hatchback.

Granted, that’s for a 2022 car just shy of 70,000 miles. Upping the budget to £25,000 brings late pre-facelift cars around 30,000 miles comfortably into play, like this one we've found. 

Go further still, and you’ll be paying around £35,000 for a late facelift with 5,000 miles on the clock. That’s practically new.

One day, we’ll likely look back quite fondly on the Peugeot 508 PSE, particularly so if values continue to head south. Even with its prices today, though, we reckon it’s a bargain oddball.