4-door saloon future: Peugeot 608

Auto-future is looking at future 4-door saloons and predicting how the Mercedes CLS and Peugeot 407 will influence the next generation vehicles. Today we look at the Peugeot 608, a car that will be so heavily influenced by the CLS that it will be known as the poor-man's CLS.

Technicaly no big surprises are expected. An evolution of engines and suspension from the Peugeot 607 and an update in equipments and electronics. Rumours have spread regarding the possible introduction of a V8 diesel engine produced together with Ford but such information is fake. Although Peugeot could certainly make such engine, and eventually manage to place it in the engine bay transversally (like the V8 in Volco XC90), an AWD system would be needed to handle the power and such thing will not be available for the 608.

Interior design will be inspired by current Peugeot designs, namely the 407. Simplicity in the general shape and attention to detail in order to transmit a quality appearance. The current 607 is already a very good effort and Peugeot will be able to pull-off a quality interior.

Design-wise it will indeed be very influenced by the CLS. Peugeot know their stuff and during the last 10 years the learned that design is the most important thing for the success of a car. They have had home-runs in many of their designs, leading to a great sales success: 206, 307, 407 are good examples. The also favour a conventional and elegant 4-door design for their top of the range and watching the failure of Renault VelSatis certainly proved how much Peugeot is right about their choices. The CGI images shown below present several interpretations for the next Peugeot haute-couture. Expect it to be a success although of course it still can not match sales numbers of the E-class or 5-series, but it will be an improvement in the right direction.