Peugeot 3008 vs Peugeot 5008: practicality

Peugeot’s SUVs have lots of great things in common, so how do you pick one? We pit the seven-seat 5008 against the smaller plug-in hybrid 3008...

Steve Huntingford

Published23 February 2022

Space and practicality

Front space, rear space, seating flexibility, boot

Not even the lankiest of occupants will have any cause to grumble about space up front: there’s plenty of head and leg room in both of our contenders. There’s a good selection of nooks and crannies for odds and ends, plus storage areas under their front armrests and cupholders between the front seats. Their gloveboxes are rather small, though.

When it comes to rear seat space, the seven-seat Peugeot 5008 – which is the longer car by 194mm and has a greater length between its front and rear wheels – has the advantage. The three seats in the middle row are all of equal width and can be slid back and forth, reclined and folded down individually for maximum flexibility, while the rearmost two can be folded into the boot floor when they’re not required.

Slide the middle-row seats all the way back in the 5008 and you’ll find that leg room is generous. There’s plenty of head room, too. Access to the rearmost seats is surprisingly easy, and there’s enough space for adults once you’re there.

The Peugeot 3008 has just as much head room in its fixed second row as the 5008, plus plenty of leg room for six-footers, albeit not as much as in its sibling. While it’s possible to squeeze three adults side by side in the back of the 3008, they probably won’t want to be there for long. The 5008 is wider across its middle row and therefore more comfortable in this respect.

All three of the 5008’s middle-row seats can take child seats and come with Isofix mounting points, while only the outer two have this feature in the 3008.

As you might expect, the 5008 has the advantage when it comes to boot space, too. In five-seat mode and even with the second row slid all the way back, the 5008’s boot is still more sizeable. In seven-seat mode, the 5008 still offers useful cargo space, and it has a flat floor when you start dropping the seat-backs.

In hybrid form, the 3008 has to house a large battery below the boot floor and therefore has a smaller capacity than the regular versions. It also has a smaller fuel tank, by 10 litres, for the same reason, and there’s no height-adjustable boot floor, although there is a neat storage space under the floor for the charging cables.