Your car's a home comfort - Peugeot 308HDI Sport road test

From time to time news seeps out from under life's rock of useless information which makes holding your head up as a driver very difficult. As would be the case if the England front row ran out wearing ladies underwear, some people are letting the side down.
Are they not Mr Haberdashery-Counter of Yeovil who hired a car then left his pink, fluffy handcuffs in it?
The list of items left in borrowed cars is, frankly, worrying.
A man in Liverpool returned a car with one false leg in it. At the same time Europecar's Salford depot took back a car with ten odd shoes on the back seat. Coincidence? I think not.
Sometimes I am convinced that the reason our political masters want us all suffering in the fetid interior of an overpriced train or riding one of Satan's bicycles is so that they know there is not a man in Reading driving around with half a pint of beer and 'The Art of Speed Seduction', CD version, in his foot well. We can only hope he was not going to meet the driver from the same town who forgot to take with him an ammunition case and a military field stretcher.
How many 308s are used by hire car companies I have no idea but the pair of 50-inch waist knickers left in a vehicle hired in Sheffield would certainly suit its ample rear. Seldom has a car broadened its hips as surely as the 308. Were it an Olympic athlete it would be tested for steroids.
Not that this is a bad thing.The effect is an up-market presence on the road. What's more the diesel HDi Sport three-door has a trim quality that might shock some owners of more expensive cars. Long gone are the days when Peugeot interiors were inspired by famine.
On top of that it will return 52mpg driven with care.
Which shouldn't be all that difficult. The 'sport' bit is really only a serving suggestion. The two-litre engine ambles through a six speed gearbox to 62mph in 10.1 seconds and has a top speed of 129mph but as a good looking, accommodating family hatchback it fits the bill. It's a new gearbox and much, much improved.
Sport models come with good equipment levels including a steering column air bag, cruise control, ESP and a leather wheel. The white instrument matrix and black dials you really will like.
Not everyone can see eye to bulging eye with the 308's styling. My recommendation is to look past this and appreciate what you get for £17,000 without the sat-nav, phone and MP3 package.
If you do get behind the wheel of a 308, please behave yourself. A man in Liverpool left a pair of ladies shoes in a car he borrowed. The car's owners helpful rang his wife to tell her. You know what's coming next don't you? Yep, He's in trouble. She only has one leg.