Influenced by no-one

I believe that "influenced by no-one" is Peugeot's strapline for the new 308 hybrid.  I haven't seen any ads myself so I don't know, but in any case I hope it doesn't mean they've been ignoring all the customer feedback they've been accumulating over the years.   Regardless, my old 308CC was showing its age and I traded it in for a 308 hybrid rechargeable.   Here's a few impressions.

First and foremost, it's a fine car to drive.  Quick, quiet, with good handling and light steering with good feedback.   A very nice drive.   Could be that it's quicker than the old 308CC, but perhaps with slightly more wallow (but not much in any case).

The on-board electronics takes some getting used to.  It's complicated.  It took us about 45 minutes on the way home from the garage to work out how to turn the radio off.  After ages spent pressing icons on the screen we discovered an honest-to-God knob that you press to turn the radio on/off, and turn to adjust the volume.  Just like the real thing!

I'm not sure about some of the driver assist functions.  If you engage the cruise control, by default you get  the "safe distance" management system that stops you getting too close to the car in front.  You do get to choose the distance between close, medium and far, but that's it, as far as I can tell.  Problem is (driving on the right) if you are following a right-hand curve and there's oncoming traffic, the system can think you are about to collide, and (sometimes) brakes quite hard.  Similarly if curving left and there's a line of stationary cars to your right it can think you are going to hit them and brakes hard.  Both of these have happened to me, and I think it's dangerous.   I have to disable this function every time I set off.

There's lane assist too, to keep you on the straight and narrow.  It defaults to "on".   Problem is, I drive a lot down narrow country lanes with tall grass to the side.  If there's an oncoming vehicle, I have to pull off onto the verge, and the lane assist tries to put me back into the path of the oncoming vehicle.  I think it's dangerous, and I have to disable this function every time I set off.

Despite the fact that the screen tells you "hybrid system loaded" when you start, the default is electric only and you have to choose hybrid to use the I/C engine when needed.

So in setting off, I have to:

• Put on seat belt
• Press and hold brake pedal
• Press "start" button
• Press "B" button for higher regenerative braking (optional)
• Press "Car" button
• Select "disable lane assist" on the screen
• Press "confirm"
• Select "disable speed control" on the screen
• Press "confirm"
• Press "Home" button to get default screen
• Select hybrid drive (optional)
• Select "D" drive gear (Or reverse, which takes an extra step)
• Go

This makes 12 steps before "Go" and seems a bit complicated to me.   The system offers "user profiles": I'm not sure if it's possible to save all my preferred settings to a profile that loads when I start the thing up.  I'll have to read the manual.   BTW, how cheap is it not to provide a paper printed manual with a new car costing upwards of €35,000?  We had to pay extra for one from a third party.  (Delivered by the post)  Eco-friendly?

And here's some customer feedback for Peugeot: I don't think I should have to do anything at all to stop my car behaving dangerously in any situation.