Remember all those moons ago when we told you that the Peugeot 308 GTi wouldn’t be coming to Malaysia? Well, it’s been a long time coming but the Gallic hot hatch (in facelifted form, no less) is finally due for our shores! It’s currently being displayed at showrooms before its expected launch next month – and we’ve got a full photo gallery just for you.
The price is expected to hover around the RM200,000 mark, making it significantly cheaper than its main rival, the RM227,060 Volkswagen Golf GTI – all while boasting a far higher power output. You’d better hurry, though, as only 12 units have currently been allocated for the country.
As mentioned, this is the facelifted model, so our 308 GTi will only come in the full-fat version fettled by Peugeot’s motorsport division Peugeot Sport. As such, the ubiquitous Prince 1.6 litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine is boosted to 270 hp at 6,000 rpm and 330 Nm of torque at 1,900 rpm.
An honest-to-goodness six-speed manual transmission as your only option, coupled with a Torsen limited-slip differential. So equipped, the GTi will sprint from zero to 100 km/h in just six seconds flat before hitting top whack at an electronically limited 250 km/h.
Under the skin, the suspension is tuned specifically for the GTi, with an 11 mm lower ride height as well as unique spring rates and damper calibration at the front. The anti-roll bar is also more malleable to ensure a better match with torsion beam rear axle, for improved grip and road-holding. The sportier stability control system also has a higher threshold, and can now be fully switched off.
On the outside, the GTi is differentiated from standard 308 models through the more aggressive front bumper, incorporating a gloss black chequered flag grille and a red accent strip (black on models with Ultimate Red paint). Also fitted are side skirts and a large rear diffuser with twin exhaust exits. The 19-inch lightweight “Carbone” alloy wheels are wrapped in 235/35 Michelin Super Sport tyres and hide uprated brakes with 380 mm front discs, clamped by four-piston callipers.
Inside, you’ll find Peugeot Sport bucket seats with Alcantara upholstery and red stitching, along with a GTi-badged steering wheel (with red centre marking), chequered instrument gauges and aluminium door sills (with “Peugeot Sport” and “GTi” script), pedals, foot rest and gear knob.
An official kit list has not been provided, but from what we can tell, local models will get full LED headlights, keyless entry, push-button start, a panoramic glass roof, a massage function for the front seats, dual-zone auto climate control, a 9.7-inch capacitive infotainment touchscreen, six speakers and a reverse camera.
So, what do you think – this, or a Golf GTI?
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Hi Hafriz, hows the 208 Pug GTi ur driving? Any advice for people who is considering this new 308 GTi beast?
Peugeot is the No 1 problematic car in Europe as well as in Malaysia. But more importantly, buy only if you can already own and maintain a BMW or Mercedes
Buyer beware. Once warranty is over, don’t get a shock when you see your Service Bills. Bills like RM5k each time is very “normal”
Yes please Hafriz, review your 208 GTi after you own it for number of years.
The 208 GTi gives U 200 hp & is smaller/nippy to drive. This 308 gives U 270 hp but also have more rooms. Buy both if U have the $$$. Damn, it’s good to be rich.
1.6l turbo churning out 270hp… good engineering… just not sure if it’s a 95, 97 or 98 only?
Unfortunately it is a Ron97 only
It runs on RON 95, according to Peugeot.
for direct injection you need euro 4m Ron 97. Our petrol has high sulphur content which can cause the injector to get clogged, so while you can use Ron 95, it’s not really recommended. Btw in other countries Ron 95 is considered as high quality fuel.
If the car company says you don’t need it. You don’t need it.
I think you’re confusing between the RON and the emission standards. RON97 is Euro 4M compliant emission standards, hence low sulphur content of 50ppm, while the RON95 is Euro 2M compliant (except for BHP’s which is supposedly 75% lower sulphur content than 2M) which has 500ppm.
You can have lower RON number but based on higher Euro standards and your engine would produce less soot.
If you can afford for a Rm200k car, you don’t look to pump RON95 into it, you dolt.
If peugeot said it runs on ron95 or higher, why bother the clogging or what so ever. It has been engineered to run with that kind of petrol. They already done multiple of test to ensure the engine is ready for production. If they said the engine is tune for ron 97 they will say it runs on ron 97 or higher.
Low quality fuel is bad all around , it will clog up all the emissions equipment throwing all sort of codes , high soot content also generate more deposit on injector and intake manifold. I too agree this needs to run exclusively on 97 simply because of the higher Euro emissions cleanliness rating. In terms of euro rating , it is similar to diesel euro rating , euro 5 is much much cleaner and better for the engine. Being such a small engine running so near the limits is never good idea.
F1 cars also powered by 1.6liter engine albeit Hybrid
C segment hot hatch with torsion beam is a sin!
Thank god there will be only 12 of them…
Pijot aftersales service left much to be desired.
Megan RS also use torsion beam, one of the greatest hot hatch that can do oversteer (in a fwd car) and set Nurburring record. It’s all about tuning, don’t know how to tune, multilink also handle cacat.
Damn.. totally clueless.. ever heard of meganes rs, boy?
Double the price tag, double the nightmare.
A 1.6 litre turbo with that much hp and torque? I guess there is a replacement for displacement
It’s 2018 and only those people who are not willing to move forward believe there is NO replacement for displacement.
Screw turbo, raw muscle all the way.
after 3 years this car cost the same price as a brand new base model honda city 1.5.
People don’t buy this as 1st Car and 2nd hand value is among the priority. Might just get yourself a Toyota Altis or Honda Civic to ferry your Family around and after 7 years change to another Civic or Altis or move to D segment. It’s for those love a pocket rocket with GTI insignia will Appreciate it. Too bad we Malaysian don’t have models from the Italians.
Wow, this young upstart 308 GTi is challenging the iconic Golf GTi with just 1.6 liter Turbo charged engine that dish out a very respectable 270 hp at 6,000 rpm & 330 Nm of torque at a low 1,900 rpm plus doing the century sprint in 6 secs flat.
If that is not enuff, the Pug is shodded with 19-inch lightweight “Carbone” alloy wheels, wrapped in sticky 235/35 Michelin Super Sport tires with uprated brakes of 380 mm front discs & clamped by 4-piston callipers.
IMO, if this Pug is price at RM180k, it will pose a serious problem not just to Golf GTi but will steal customers from Civic Type R too.
Not really, the money saved will probably go towards paying for high spare part prices and dodgy maintenance mechanics at the dealers’ – can’t win them all. However, if I was in the market for a hot hatch – I would buy the Peugeot just to stick it to those overpriced competition but drive it ever so carefully
Its a manual gearbox, much reliable than the DSG.
Peugeot problems are far worse than just DSG
reliable than DSG? so boring lah no POP and slow response. wanna play safe with manual? that’s like getting a so so gf looking and say oh she will not cheat on me..LOL
but the VW GTI or the VW R, or the high performance VWs run on wet clutch which is much more reliable. heck even the new VWs with the dry clutch has not much issues these days.
the best thing bout this pug is 270hp. but boosted from 1.6. i wonder how now it can run our low grade petrol when before it couldnt? n like hafriz said, 95ron can run this thing? which is a euro 2m?
BUT, its a good thing its a manual. if its an Aisin box auto, the carbon issues will probably pop up.
the normal pugs with the normal 1.6T with around 160hp already has massive carbon build up issues with the Euro 2m fuels. n now boosted to 270hp, hmmm..lets c what happens to the 12 units….
Best to run this with Euro 4 which is 97. Most who afford this can for sure fuel up on 97 anyways.
Oh for your info, the newer TSI VWs, now has dual injection tech. multi point injection and direct injection combined. not sure what has been done to this 270hp engine though. and BMW has also abandoned this ‘Prince’ engine in favor of its own 1.5 Turbo.
There is a saying – Real man drive Manual, Uncle like me NOW use auto. I use to drive a CTR when I was younger.
WoW nice car,but I only can affort 2nd hand unit maybe RM 80K after 3 years.this it’s a better choice between 208GTi and 308GTi. Although at Australia civic type R selling around 55K and 308GTi 45K,still consider cheaper then civic a lot,cost of maintenance should be not much more then normal 308THP,but the engine pair with bigger turbo and stronger piston.
Reduce price by 50% !
Please inform the new transport minister and Harapan government to do so..
Then we can all enjoy owning it easily.
Thanks Peugeot Malaysia for bringing this car. Please improve your after sales service too.
We don’t officially get manual golf gti over here. So definitely Peugeot 308 gti is the winner in my book.
Torsion beam?how inferior.
The 1.6L prince engine is proven failure. Many Peugeot and Citroën owners are the victims. Even BMW and Mini only use it for a short while with low output tuning and ditch it. Tune to such high output is asking for trouble.
Here we have an exciting new entry in Malaysian market and again, the only thing malaysians care about is RV. Malaysia’s car Industry will never change :). Forever T/H/M gonna dominate and control the market. I’ve said it once ill say it again.
1) RV is determined by market demand. FD2R how old already still high RV. 9th Gen civic RV is crap compared to normal FD, why? No one want mah. When Malaysian too chicken to try new brands of course la RV for that brand bad aiyaaa.
2) Ofcourse la T/H/M is cheaper to maintain people aiyo. Its not rocket science, asian car cheap to maintain in asia? No duhhhh
RV will improve when aftersales service improve.
For now NAZA groups after sales service is much to be desired. Nasim sells barely 1000 cars a year yet unable to give a superb after sales service. in fact the service should be even better then HONDA/TOYOTA/NISSAN… cause.. how many units of Peugeots you have on the road?
i wonder what’s the boost. when we compare apple to apple we must know the details. Golf gti is boost at 0.8 only. Golf R im not sure, maybe 1.0. all Japanese cars like Impreza and Evo is bossted at 1.5 since 10-20 years ago.
I am currently 308THP owner. I personally think that this car is definitely better than Golf GTi. But the price tag at RM200k will make me ocnsider Volvo V40 T5 at only RM188k. Even thought V40 is only 6.3sec, a little bit slower but more safety features.
An alternative to this would be a mazda 3 mps, in stock form it runs 263hp 380nm, 6 speed manual with a helical LSD.. bermaz only brought 100 units to Msia in 2012, and u can find used ones now for around RM75k to RM95k (for well kept low mileage units) … brand new it was RM180k from bermaz.. for those looking for a more budget friendly hothatch…
The excise duties in our country make CBU cars too pricey for a lot of enthusiasts unfortunately, this 308 GTi in other markets probably costs way less
Better go for Automatic Transmission… Becoz highway plus always jam.. U will regret it… Hahahahha