IF you took Peugeot’s marketing department at face value, you’d swear the company’s hot hatch cupboard has been bare since the end of the 205 GTi in the early 1990s and the birth of the 208 version this year.

The 208 GTi, it says, is the true spiritual successor to that famous car. It’s almost as if the company wants us to forget the 206 and 207 GTi models that have come and gone, and which fell short of the original’s benchmark.

We fail to see how this nod to nostalgia affects the 208’s abilities against key rivals such as the Polo GTI and forthcoming Fiesta ST, though.

First impressions of this 208 - which is 165kg lighter than its predecessor - indicate this car stands on its own merits, on counts of both style and substance.

Read more after the jump…

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