Peugeot presents its new midsize minivan, the 5008

Citroën wants to become a more upscale carmaker, but it offers products Peugeot does not have in its range. At least not for the time being, but the idea in PSA seems to include a change in that. This is probably the reason why Peugeot, after presenting its 3008 crossover (sort of), will also introduce the new 5008 minivan at this year's Frankfurt Motor Show. Even though the German event is only in September, Peugeot has already provided us with pictures that present the new minivan in full details.



The new 5008 will be a seven-seater (five, in really, because the third row is composed by very small seats, similar to the ones used by Opel Zafira). It is 4.53 m long, 1.84 m wide, 1.64 m tall and bears a wheelbase of 2.73 m. The car, just like Citroën C4 Grand Picasso, is built over the Citroën C4/Peugeot 308 platform. The lugagge compartment can hold up from 579 l to 679 l with third row seats folded down. This difference in space is due to the fact that the second row of seats slides in order to make more room in the lugagge compartment, if that is necessary.

Besides the Head-Up Display, which projects speed information, for example, in the windshield in order for the driver not to look any other way than the road, 5008 also features six airbags, standard ESP and other safety equipment in order to be one of the safest people movers around.

As for the engines, there will be six options, two petrol and four diesel units. At first, buyers will only have the 1.6-litre VTi petrol engine, with two different outputs: 120 bhp and 156 bhp. Later, they will be able to choose two 1.6-litre HDi diesel engines. Both produce 110 bhp, but one of them, the BMP6, is slightly more fuel efficient, what, apparently, does not make much sense. This is possibly due to the adoption of an automatic gearbox in the other one, the BVM6. The top diesel engines, both 2-litre HDi units, produce respectively 150 bhp and 163 bhp.

Considering Peugeot has never tried to sell anything in this market segment, let's see how the 5008 performs. If looking good has something to do with sales performance, Peugeot may have a great contender in its hands. Or should we say claws?