Driven: Peugeot 308 VTi

There's a lot you can tell of a car just by its seats. Firstly, you can differentiate whether you are made to sit on one or to properly sit in one. While one of the most famous Japanese marque seem to dictate that you plant your gluteus maximus muscle on one of their car 'stools', the Pug that you see above has simply one the most cossseting and supportive item around - for its class or even one segment up. Paired with a suspension pliancy that reeks of Conti finesee - French to be specific - it's truly very pleasant to drive around in one. Case in point, even when you have failed to brake in time for one of those free-for-all-tall-supersized speed bump, the 308 dampers seem to have taken it all in stride. No bottoming out, no jarring thump, no post hump wallow.

While this base 308 may roll a little more than desired around corners, the whole package seem to work very well with the naturally aspirated 1.6L engine. Power is mostly adequate and definitely not underpowered, what's with the 4-speed Titronic Porsche gearbox working well across the sweep of engine speed. Of course, there's that Turbo sibling with much more verve and with what higher bookings probably translating to a notion of better value-for-money. However, all is not lost on this VTi. At sub-RM100k for a C-segment Conti hatch, I doubt you will be able to find anything with ride, seats and body control better than this, brand new with warranty et al. Heck! You can't get even a brand-new Honda Jazz i-VTEC for that kind of money. Go figure.