Verdict

WHILE the Peugeot 308 is good to drive and oozes style, the space on offer in the hatchback is definitely a struggle with a family Hopefully our new 308 SW estate should solve that issue, though.

McIlroy John McIlroy@autovia co uk @johnmcilroy

IT’S always interesting to try a car late in its development, and then revisit it once it’s made it into showrooms That was the case recently when Mazda organised a road trip to the Brussels Motor Show and suggested that we might like to take our CX-60 I purloined the keys from chief subeditor Andy Pringle – and roped my family in for the trip, to see how the big plug-in hybrid would cope with a longer journey There’s no denying that Mazda has got the cabin right The company wants to rebrand its products as “crafted in Japan”, and while it pains me to praise any marketing slogan, this one feels every bit as accurate as it is clever We were instantly impressed by the mix of plastics and materials, with a brighter-than-usual feel (helped further by the large sunroof) and some novel Japanese finishes like the intricate weave on the dash There’s a weight and heft to all of the switches, too; you really need to put in effort, for example, to slide the central air vents from side to side They feel like they’re counterweighted by a lump of rock Sadly, the Mazda’s powertrain can’t quite match the polish of its cabin environment The disappointment begins when you pull away with a freshly replenished battery, because the system insists on showing off its electric-running credentials There’s nothing wrong with this in theory, except that the electric motor sounds like someone squeezing a pair of fairly asthmatic gerbils This is particularly glaring, of course, when