• Unconventional but high-quality dashboard
• Peugeot’s i-Cockpit doesn’t suit everyone
• Uprated infotainment works well

How is the quality and layout?

The Peugeot 408’s dashboard looks and for the most part feels like a stylish, high-quality product. Material choices are premium throughout, and we especially like the swathes of fabric (or Alcantara on top-spec cars) that break up the plastic and provide some textural difference.

Peugeot’s i-Cockpit driving arrangement (below) features, of course – taking the form of a 10.0-inch digital instrument panel that you look at over the top of, rather than through, the small, squarish steering wheel. The Parkers team is mixed on this, with some finding it a comfortable arrangement while others can’t find a driving position that allows them to see the dials. We recommend taking a long test drive and playing around with your seating position and steering wheel to see if you can get on with it.

The central infotainment display takes over from most of the physical switchgear, including the climate control, but you do get a row of shortcut buttons as well as configurable touch-sensitive ‘i-Toggles’ to allow you to set the car up to your liking – these seem quite pointless, other than being good to look at. Being so reliant on touchscreen controls is one thing, but the screen is a bit of a stretch for most drivers, making operating in on the move rather uncomfortable.

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Infotainment and tech

The good news is that the two high-quality screens are very good. They’re both 10.0-inches on the diagonal, and at first glance they do seem a little busy. However both are very configurable, with the infotainment home screen in particular acting rather like the home screen of an Android phone. You can position an array of different widgets wherever you want them, giving you either a clean look or shortcuts to functions like the climate, trip computer or even the seat massagers wherever you want them.

Though this setup is fiddly at first, it’s a lot better than simply having to deal with a fixed homescreen. However, we still wish there were a row of climate control switches to make adjusting the temperature on the move less dependent on voice control. And despite improvements, the infotainment system still isn’t the quickest to respond – plus, it’s very heavily canted towards the driver, which is great until the front passenger wants to adjust something.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come as standard, though you’ll need to pay an additional £100 for a wireless charging pad. This is at least very conveniently positioned just below the screen in a very well-sized storage area.

Comfort

• Firm yet comfortable seats
• Roomy in the rear, lacking a little headroom
• Low noise levels

Life in the Peugeot 408 is very comfortable indeed. The front seats strike a good balance between firmness, lumbar support and plushness, holding you in place without clasping you in a vice-like grip unlike some more sporting rivals.

In addition, the rear bench is also reasonably supportive (if lacking in headroom, as mentioned earlier) and well shaped. All models have heated front seats while on top spec cars they’ll even massage you.

Refinement is excellent. We’ve not driven a base-spec Allure car but the upper two trim levels get accoustic double-glazed glass in the front windows which really effectively blocks out road and wind noise – the latter already reduced by the 408’s wind-cheating shape. Engine noise is quite well-insulated too, and of course the plug-in hybrids are also capable of running on totally silent electricity.