Street-smart braking now standard across Peugeot range

All Peugeot cars and SUVs sold in Australia will soon come with automatic emergency braking (AEB) as standard for no extra cost.

Peugeot’s new Australian distributor, Inchcape, is making AEB – already available across the mid- and high-spec variants – standard equipment at the lower end of its 208, 308, 2008 and 3008 ranges.

This includes the 208 Active, which is the only model to undergo a price change – a $200 reduction to $21,990.

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The 2008 Active small SUV also gains the AEB previously only given to its more expensive stablemates, as do the recently facelifted 308, and 3008, Active and Allure.

The 308 Active also gets driver attention detection, high-beam assist, speed limit recognition and lane departure warning without adding to its $26,990 price tag, while the 3008 Allure picks up active cruise control.

A Peugeot Australia spokesman told WhichCar the company believed AEB was something all cars should have, and it was delighted to offer such a safety feature to all its cars with no price increase.

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He said the changes apply to 2018-plated cars, and could take a little time to filter through the network as stocks arrive.

This is a welcome move from UK-owned Inchcape, which took over Peugeot and Citroen distribution in Australia last year from Malaysian-owned Sime Darby, adding to its Subaru distributorship here.

One of its first moves here was to cut Citroen warranties from five to three years, while rationalising its dealership network “to help increase the overall financial viability of the dealer network and to consolidate the Peugeot and Citroen brands”.

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The rationalisation meant the company would only support dealerships that sold both Peugeot and Citroen models, and mostly affected standalone Citroen dealers.

But with new models including the Citroen C3 crossover and rejuvenated Peugeot 3008, the company is hopeful to build on the French brands’ long histories in Australia, which included local assembly of Peugeot models between the late 1960s-’70s.