Subaru Levorg vs Peugeot 308

What's the difference?

The Levorg STI Sport is a niche car that flies so close to true greatness. It’s a bucket load of fun… but not fun enough for the true enthusiast. A practicality, equipment and safety hero… but too brutal to be cross-shopped with an SUV… It’s an awesome car that’s just too narrow in its appeal to find a large audience. One thing is for sure – it will be interesting to see what Subaru does next with the Levorg badge.

The 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid is a beautifully designed small hatch that is comfortable, enjoyable and easy to drive. The electric motor gives this hatch good acceleration and the equally impressive handling makes for a fun car to drive too. There's good storage, a decent boot and room for even tall people like me in those back seats.

There are two clear drawbacks, however: the price is steep compared to the petrol version; and you'll need to plug the vehicle into a power supply each night if you drive the car daily and want to achieve the 2.4L/100km fuel economy we did in this test.

Last, but probably the most important thing you'll read is that Peugeot will bring fully electric cars to Australia from the second half of 2023, from SUVs to (hopefully) the battery electric version of this very 308 hatch.

If it was my money, I'd hold on - you're going to have your next car for quite a long time so it's worth waiting for the fully electric versions.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

I love the Levorg’s design. It’s slick, low and mean, and also unmistakably Subaru. It also plants itself right next to the WRX in the brand’s stable with that utterly ridiculous and unnecessary bonnet scoop, which does actually lead to a massive intercooler and thus is at least, functional.

The entire front of this car borrows so much from the boy-racer camp it’s just exciting to look at and, like any hot wagon should be, it’s party in the front and business in the back, with a paired-back rear end and side profile which says it’s ready for the family haul during the week.

The only giveaways from the rear are the chunky dual exhaust pipes and the almost aftermarket-style alloys which in our test car’s case were body-coloured.

Just like its WRX sedan brother though, the Levorg’s exterior design does lag a little behind the brand’s all-new Impreza and Forester ranges with it’s last-gen fittings exposing it’s last-gen underpinnings (rumor has it a new Levorg is on the horizon…).

The Levorg’s interior is as plush as it is chunky, with nice soft leather-trimmed bits placed along the doorcards and transmission column, as well as on the thick, purposeful steering wheel. Again, pundits who have helmed a WRX in the last few years will be familiar with all the fittings in here.

There’s little to give away the fact that the Levorg is older than the rest of Subaru’s range, it’s a modern dash design. It also suffers from Subaru’s obsession with screens as you have a TFT screen in the dash cluster, a information display in the binnacle atop the dashboard and a 7.0-inch multimedia touchscreen embedded in the centre stack. It’s just too much information from too many angles.

I will say I love the design of the analog instrument cluster, with its red highlights and the multimedia screen is definitely one of the better ones, with an easy-to-use interface and flawless phone mirroring (for Apple CarPlay at least).

It’s a symmetrical, cosy and aesthetically pleasing place to be.

There hasn't been a Peugeot in the last five years that wasn't stunning. There's the high quality feel in their build, and premium yet unique look - like a new Volvo but with more flair. And the 308 hatch and this hybrid version has all of that.

From the sinister looking LED tail-lights to the wide mesh grille, you really get the feeling that Peugeot is hitting its design stride.

This 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid looks identical to the petrol version with its low, wide stance, and big dark alloy wheels that fill up its arches.

The cabin is sporty, lavish and minimalist with quilted leather upholstery seats, the digital driver display and media screen, and avant garde small angular steering wheel.

Why buy a wagon? Well, for a start, you’ll be getting generally much better boot space than a hatchback or a small SUV (with the handling appeal of a car), but I’m willing to bet if you’ve read this far, you already knew that.

The Levorg’s boot, for example, offers up 489-litres (VDA) with the second row up or 1413L with the seats down. For a bit of perspective, that’s a good 47-litres more (with the seats up) than a mid-size Mazda CX-5.

It’s a big, flat practical space, too with tie-down hooks, and under the boot floor, there is a space-saver spare wheel.

Moving to the second row, passengers will get decent, but not stellar rear legroom as well as good headroom, but where the Levorg shines is the sculpted rear outboard seats which are comfortable to sit in.

The door trims continue the soft-touch surfaces, and have a single 500ml-sized bottle holder on each side.

The middle passenger sadly loses out on legroom due to the large raised tunnel for AWD running gear underneath, and there are no vents, with rear passenger amenities limited to dual USB power outlets and a drop-down centre armrest.

Front occupants score 500ml bottle holders in each door card, a big glove box, a decently-sized centre console box, dual-cupholders in the transmission tunnel and a huge binnacle under the climate controls, where a 12-volt, dual USB and AUX ports exist.

Visibility out of the Levorg is excellent thanks to big rear vision mirrors, a deceptively tall windscreen and the naturally wide aperture of a wagon rear window.

Ergonomics are pretty good for front passengers too, with sporty, supportive seats and dial controls in all the right places (fan speed, temperature, volume, and tuning).

What you will miss out on over Subaru’s SUV range is the easy entry and exit that comes with a taller ride height. You’ll really need to drop yourself into the Levorg’s low-set seats.

Peugeot's 308 is a small hatch, think Toyota Corolla, only beautiful and more spacious.

So, the 308 can carry five people with just enough head and legroom for a semi-giant like me (I'm 191cm) to sit behind his driving position.

There's good cabin storage with large door pockets, a long and deep storage box under the centre armrest up front along with two cupholders up there, too.

The boot has a cargo capacity of 361 litres, which isn't bad for this class.

To power devices there's a wireless phone charger under the dash, and USB ports for front and rear passengers.

A quirky Peugeot design feature is the low-placed angular steering wheel. I found had to squeeze my knees past to sit in the driver's seat. I'm not sure what size human was used as the test case for this but it wasn't somebody with stilts like mine, I can tell you that.

The 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid lists for $64,990 before on-road costs. The ‘GT Sport' part of the name is the grade and the hybrid only comes in this grade. In comparison the priciest petrol 308 hatch is the GT Premium for $48,990. The 308 GT Premium also comes in wagon form and that's $50,490. Alas the wagon doesn't come as a hybrid.

Is it good value? Nope. A charge of $16,000 over the cost of the GT Premium petrol version with almost identical standard features is pretty unreasonable. It's also not good value when you could buy a fully electric car about the same size such as a new Tesla Model 3 for $64,300, or a Polestar 2 for even less at $63,900.

However if your heart is set on a PHEV, the main competitor is another Euro hatch - the Cupra Leon VZe from $59,990.

The 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid standard features include LED matrix headlights, 18-inch alloy wheels and a panoramic sunroof, while inside there are two 10-inch displays - one for the media system and one for the driver's gauges.

It also has black full-grain Nappa leather seats (heated and massaging for the driver and front passenger), a 10-speaker Focal stereo system, proximity unlocking, dual-zone climate control, sat nav, wireless phone charging, plus Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

This section starts out sounding actually very good. Powering the two most expensive Levorg spec levels is a 2.0-litre turbo boxer engine, producing a strong-sounding 197kW/350Nm, power outputs that once would have been in V6 territory.

Where the enthusiast audience is let down though is the rather pedestrian continuously variable transmission (CVT) auto which the engine is mated to.

There’s no option of a manual here, nor is there a more performance-oriented dual-clutch, even in our top-spec car.

All Levorgs use Subaru’s own all-wheel drive system which includes torque vectoring on 2.0-litre variants.

The 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid has a 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engine making 132kW and 250Nm combined with an electric motor at the front wheels making 81kW and 320Nm.

The combined output of the engine and motor working together is 165kW and 360Nm, and sending that grunt to the front wheels only is an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Acceleration is good. We're talking 0-100km/h in 7.4 seconds which is more than two seconds quicker than the petrol-only variant.

An unfortunate side-effect of the Levorg’s slightly older 2.0-litre engine architecture is a minimum fuel requirement of mid-grade 95 RON unleaded to fill its 60-litre tank.

The Levorg STI’s claimed/combined fuel figure comes in at a not-low 8.7L/100km, against which we scored 9.6L/100km blasting around back-country roads in the Kosciuszko National Park for several days.

It’s a high fuel use figure, but at least a semi-realistic one given the type of driving we were doing. Again, with a more enthusiast audience, a few extra litres here and there won’t shake potential buyers, but there is better to be had elsewhere from lower-capacity engines.

This is what it's all about right? Well, Peugeot says that after a combination of open and urban roads the 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid will use 1.3L/100km.

At the launch I did a 34km test loop through Sydney's Northern Beaches with a good mix of morning traffic and hilly terrain. At the end of my journey the trip computer reported an average fuel consumption of 2.4L/100km.

I drove the entire loop in Hybrid mode, but there is a Sport mode, a Battery Save mode and EV mode.

If you were to drive in EV mode Peugeot says the electric driving range with a full battery is 60km.

At the start of my drive the battery was about three-quarters charged with the gauges displaying 38km of range.

A mileage of 2.4L/100km is still excellent fuel economy and from experience I can tell you a petrol-only variant would be up around the 8.0 or 9.0L/100km mark for the same trip.

There is a catch, and that is you'll need to plug in your hybrid 308 daily to charge the battery if you plan to achieve the fuel economy I did.

Charging will be slow, however, because Peugeot has fitted this hybrid with a small 3.7kW on-board charger. So, even using a fast charger you'll be looking at more than four hours to fully charge the 12.4kWh lithium-ion battery.

This charging time and small electric driving range in return could be a deal breaker for some and it's the reason why I've given the 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid a lower mark. If you aren't always charging this car your fuel usage will rocket. New buyers unaware of this could end up using more petrol than ever.

A fully electric vehicle may be a better solution for city dwellers.

The Levorg is great fun to drive, but it still falls short of that stenciled red ‘STI’ badge that lives on its front and rear.

I’ll explain. There’s plenty of power on offer here, it’s just how you’re able to use it. When you’re as close to the ground as you are in the Levorg it should be engaging, with maximum driver input and minimum interference.

The trouble is the CVT takes that idea of control out of your hands. It’s rubbery and unnatural, and a bit dull when you’re pushing the otherwise-tightly tuned chassis around corners.

It’s a shame because everything else is so close to excellent. The steering is superb, direct and with just the right amount of weight to it, and when you’re enjoying the Kosciuszko National Park’s best B-roads you can really feel all the grip delivered by the torque vectoring all-wheel drive system. It’s a blast and very reminiscent of the WRX.

Setting the drive computer to 'Sport Sharp' mode tightens up throttle response and keeps the CVT revving harder. This is best enjoyed using the paddle-shifters to bring the revs up in corners and hold them for longer in the straights, allowing the Levorg to behave as closely to a normal auto as possible.

It’s the best way to drive it, but demands the right road. It’s also a little less fun because there’s no penalty for getting it wrong. Rev too hard or drop the 'gear' too low and the computer will simply switch the transmission back to auto mode.

The suspension is a lot of fun on a back road, but decidedly less so around town. In the case of the STI with its extra firm springs, it’s best described as brutal, crashing low and hard over road imperfections. It also allows far more sound into the cabin than in other Subaru products, with tyre roar picking up at freeway speeds or on coarse bitumen.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the Levorg’s drive experience more than I had even expected to, but it’s not for everyone and won’t please the die-hard enthusiast either.

Once you've become accustomed to the strange, low steering wheel with its angular design the 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid is superb to drive. The suspension is composed and comfortable, the handling is excellent, the steering is light and with the combination of both the electric motor and petrol engine, acceleration is good.

For those of you who haven't driven a plug-in hybrid before I think you'll like the quiet electric power at low speeds and the feeling of ‘instant' acceleration the electric motor adds, but compared to driving a regular petrol car the experience is much the same, just less noisy and smoother.

The petrol variant of the Peugeot 308 achieved low scores when it came to protecting its front passengers in ANCAP's frontal off-set crash test and it was for mainly this reason that the vehicle scored four out of  the maximum five stars in its ANCAP and equivalent European safety rating.

That said, Peugeot Australia has added more safety technology to the 308 than the European version of this car, such as a more comprehensive autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system as standard.

Along with AEB that can also detect cyclists and pedestrians, other standard safety tech includes lane keeping assistance, blind spot warning and rear cross traffic alert.

For child seats there are three top tether anchor mounts across the second row and two ISOFIX points on the outside rear seats.

There are front and side airbags for the driver and co-pilot, while curtain airbags cover the first and second rows.

Subaru offers a five-year/unlimited km warranty across its entire range, which is on-par with competitors, including the Octavia and Mazda6.

Like the Skoda, Subaru also offers the ability to buy service plans in three- or five-year packages at the time of purchase, doing so includes other benefits including a free service hire vehicle and three years of roadside assist.

The 2.0-litre Levorgs, including our STI cost between $319.54 and $671.85 per six-monthly 12,500km service interval for a total cost of $4,540.92 for the life of the five-year warranty.

That breaks down to an average cost of $908.18 which is actually very expensive considering the Octavia RS costs less than half that at $340 per year, and it’s a European car.

The 308 GT Sport plug-in hybrid is covered by Peugeot's five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty.

Peugeot will cover the hybrid battery with an eight-year/160,000km warranty.

Servicing is recommended at 15,000km or 12 month intervals and it can be expensive. Peugeot says the first service will be $425, then second is $771, the next is $425, then at 60,000km the costs will be $900, then $439 for the following.