Peugeot 508 SW

As with its saloon stablemate, the SW excels for comfort, refinement and road manners. And most importantly for an estate, it delivers on practicality, too. It has most rivals beaten for space, and there are plenty of clever touches to make loading easy. Not only is it one of the most practical estates on the road, the Peugeot is one of the most stylish, too. The downside? The flagship is extremely expensive.  

It's the 508 that’s loading up on style! If practicality is key for you, Peugeot offers this SW estate model, which boasts 660 litres of boot space – but thanks to one-touch controls mounted in the boot, the rear seats can be folded down to create a load area of 1,865 litres. That’s a massive 224 litres more than the new VW Passat Estate and 132 litres over the Ford Mondeo Estate. 

There’s a host of clever touches elsewhere, too, including an optional motorised tailgate, one-touch tonneau cover, a hidden compartment underneath the boot floor and a huge panoramic sunroof.

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Space for passengers is the same as in the saloon, but the sunroof creates the illusion of a far more airy cabin for both front and rear passengers. 

From the front, the estate looks like its saloon counterpart, but a swooping roofline gives the SW a ‘shooting brake’ appearance, while new rear lights further differentiate the load carrier. 

The design is so successful that we think the estate is the better looking of the two models.

The SW weighs 1,780kg – which is 44kg more than the saloon – and, on the road, there are a few subtle differences in the two driving experiences. The GT model, fitted with the same 2.2-litre diesel engine as the saloon, feels marginally slower to respond, but still posts an impressive 0-62mph time of 8.4 seconds – a mere 0.2 seconds down on the saloon.

The extra weight makes the SW less efficient too, with CO2 emissions of 154g/km. 

That moves this version into a higher tax bracket costing a total of £155 a year – an extra £30 over the saloon. Fuel economy has also worsened slightly by 1.8mpg at 47.8mpg.

In corners, the SW rolls more than the saloon, but the steering is just as direct and responsive, and there’s a healthy amount of feedback from the front wheels. It still feels agile, but it’s not quite as sharp.

The extra weight does mean there is a slight harshness to the ride that you don’t get with the saloon, but it’s still a very capable and comfortable cruiser. 

The SW is a highly capable all-rounder that boasts a huge boot, comfortable ride and impressive refinement. But, as with the saloon, it comes at a price – top-spec GT models cost £29,975.