2019 Peugeot 508 wagon revealed

A WAGON form of the Peugeot 508 called the Touring will join the recently revealed 508 sedan, with the French owner of the Holden Commodore revealing a sharp, shooting brake-styled load-lugger for the second-generation family runabout.

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Built off Groupe PSA’s EMP2 platform that also underpins the smaller 308, the 508 Touring will go head-to-head with the SUV-styled Holden Commodore Tourer when it potentially arrives in Australia, expected to be sometime in mid-2019 at the earliest.

The big-booted 508 will make its official debut at October’s Paris Motor Show, the brand has confirmed.

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It’s a good-looking thing. As classy and elegant around the front as the sedan with its bit of sabretooth tiger in the way the daytime running lights hang off the LED headlights, and featuring the same frameless windows with hidden pillars as the sedan, it’s down the rear where the newly fettled “SW” in Peugeot-speak is markedly different.

The cat-claw tail-lamps are connected via a continuous strip running across the tailgate, showing off a rear that looks more like a Porsche Macan than a Peugeot family hauler. Spread across the tailgate is a stretched “P E U G E O T” that’s missing from the smaller-booted version.

Lift the tailgate, and the 508 wagon will swallow 530 litres when filled up to the level of the rear seats, which expands to 1780 litres once the rear seats are tumbled forward. That’s more than 110 litres roomier than the Holden Commodore Tourer’s cargo bay.

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Like the sedan, the wagon version of the 508 sports twin exhausts, although for the sedan they’re pushed to either side of the diffuser, while in this version of the wagon they’re almost kissing each other on the left edge of it.

Inside, European versions of the 508 will have access to the full suite of Groupe PSA’s driver-assist technologies, including a night-vision camera – Peugeot is claiming this as a first for the segment.

Unlike the GM-sourced atmo V6-only, Twinster diff-equipped all-wheel-drive Commodore Tourer, the bum-dragging 508 SW is expected to pick from a range of turbocharged petrol and diesel four-cylinder engines sourced from within Groupe PSA. It will use an eight-speed automatic across the range.

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But the big-booted Pug faces a real challenge in Australia. Not only does it have to fight the growing consumer switch to high-riding SUVs at the expense of traditional passenger cars, it will also need to face stiff competition from the wagon-bodied likes of the Ford Mondeo, Skoda Superb, Mazda 6, Subaru Levorg and the Volkswagen Passat.