By Christopher Tan
Senior Correspondent

How far will a knockout body get you? Not very far, even in the world of beauty pageants and supermodels, unless you have poise, confidence and attitude, too. And in the local context, good diction as well, apparently.

The cards are stacked similarly in the automotive world. Unless a car moves with dexterity, accelerates convincingly and sounds good, it will not go far, no matter how beautiful it is.

Peugeot's new and curvaceous 308CC may be a case in point, although the car is not completely without substance.

As styling standards go, it more than meets the mark. From every angle, the French model is easy on the eye, another fitting tribute to Peugeot's design maestros.

Compared with the preceding 307CC, the 308CC is a more complete product. It is considerably bigger, now a full fourseater instead of a cramped 2+2.

Its boot is decent, with 465 litres of stowage when the roof is up and 266 litres when it is down.

It has an impressive resume of features, most of them safety-related. These include protection bars that pop up in a rollover, six airbags (including the world's first side head airbag for a car without B-pillars), swivelling xenon headlamps with washers and a generous expanse of LED tail-lamps.

It also has interior and exterior courtesy lights and dual-zone air-conditioning with rear vents. The one-touch roof operation converts the Pug from coupe to cabriolet in 20 seconds, with the hard top folding away and back smoothly and silently.

Now, all those things may be passe for cars which cost close to S$200,000 but they are not common in the 308CC's price and engine segment.

The 308CC is powered by a 1.6-litre turbo co-developed with BMW Group. This engine is found across the PSA Peugeot-Citroen family.

In the 308CC, it offers a responsiveness the 307CC lacks. Mated to a fourspeed automatic that behaves like a continuously variable transmission, the power plant makes light work of tasks associated with urban driving.

But it is not the most pleasant-sounding drivetrains around. A hollow and raspy resonance builds up from 3,000rpm. Thankfully, unhurried operation will not require revs beyond 2,500rpm.

Next, road noise intrudes - amplified by an echoey chamber. It is hard to decide which is worse: the car's dental drill of an engine or the torturous tarmac timbre that comes through its floorboard.

All that becomes irrelevant when you flip a switch to bring the roof down. Or so you think.

While open-top motoring in the 308CC is clearly the way to go, it is not without hiccups. At 90kmh, the turbulence gets to the driver's seatbelt and it begins to whip the occupant's torso ever so gently, ever so quickly.

It is not entirely unpleasant, if you are in the mood for an upper-body rubdown.

Otherwise, the flip-flapping can be a tad distracting. This is the first car I have driven that exhibits this peculiar feature.

But I am not sure if it is an option in the test-car or a standard item across the board.

One last thing: Folding the front seat forward to facilitate access to the second row can be painful, literally. You have to use such force to operate the seat lever that you risk not only a good manicure, but also the use of one or more digits.

So, the 308CC has a couple of worthy qualities to go with its beautiful bod, namely a punchy engine, lots of usable space, relatively high equipment level and competitive pricing.

But to win the hearts of the audience, it needs to be more, especially in the light of increasingly tough competition from the likes of VW and even rival Gallic group Renault, which recently created the exquisite Laguna coupe.

christan@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

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