Peugeot 308 CC || The Irresistible French Beauty

Draw me like one of your French Girls

You probably have heard this quote from the movie Titanic, it signifies beauty. The french, as many knows, are very good at many things, such as cheese, lovers, luxurious apparels, and mainly design. Their cars are no exception. Have a look at the new Citroen's and DS cars, though they have lost their touch with the absence of the Hydractive Suspension system that was in their range of cars in the previous years, their designs are still 0ne of the  best in the market out there. Other well known car manufacturers from France are Renault, Peugeot and Buggati.

Enter the Peugeot 308 CC

Fully imported from France, this beauty was launched by Nasim Sdn Bhd, an authorized distributor for Peugeot cars in Malaysia in the early months of 2011, only 50 units were imported to this country. Fun-fact! : Tony Fernandes (yes, the AirAsia guy) was the first person in Malaysia to receive this car, in fact, he even used this car to protest against Airport Tax Hike, which can be read more about it HERE. The configuration for the Malaysian market is a 1.6 turbocharged Prince Engine with output of 156hp and 240nm of torque, mated to a conventional Aisin 6-speed torque converter gearbox. Other countries gets either a 1.6 HDI, 2.0 HDI Diesel engine and also a 1.6 200hp mated to a 6 speed manual gearbox. Color options that were made available to Malaysian buyers are Pearl White exterior and Integral Vintage leather interior OR a Mocha Brown exterior and a Luxury Grey Lama interior. The assortments of colours cannot be mixed and match though.

Why the Peugeot?

As per written in my introductory post, I will be writing about the cars that was owned by not just me, but my family members as well. This time around, this Peugeot, belongs to my father. It started back in 2011, I was only 15 years old that time and my father, he was reaching a stage where people calls it the Mid-life crisis. He wanted to get a sporty car, which doesnt break his bank account, preferably a 2 door coupe that can accommodate the 4 of us, and a brand new unit, due to warranty. The famous ones during that time was the Volkswagen Scirocco, it had all the substance and style,it was a coupe, 2 doors, 4 seats. However, I was not quite sure why we didnt get that car at that moment hmm..  

pic: the 308 CC parked next to a VW Scirocco

The next option was the Volkswagen EOS, that thing had a 200hp engine with a 6 speed DSG transmission, too bad however the design was pretty old even by 2011 standards, and the price point was unacceptable to us. One fine day, I was browsing paultan.org  and read about the Peugeot 308 CC that was on display at Bangsar Shopping Centre. I immediately asked him to bring us there to have a look at the car.

picture credit paultan.org

It was a love at first sight! Dad without a slight hesitation, proceed to place a booking and put down the downpayment for the car.

It was an agonizing 2 month wait, the car was booked in the middle of January, as the car was fully imported from France, it finally arrived on the Malaysian soil somewhere in March of 2011. We were quite excited as this was the first car in the family that was not a Japanese, and a turbocharged one! I was not with my dad when he took delivery of the car, however I kept on calling and calling him, asking questions like How does it feel to drive? Can hear the turbo whistle? . As it was quite late that day, we did not go anywhere to test out the car.

On the 2nd day of ownership, dad said, Lets go to Genting Highlands! Boy I was so excited, here are some pictures of the journey to the mountains

  It was my first time being in an open-top vehicle, the fresh breeze, the winding roads, Ahhhhh, the day couldnt possibly go any better. We arrived home feeling fresh and a smile drawn on our face.

The next day, something happened, that we were not expecting it to happen to such a brand new car, the roof leaked!

After a number of calls and social media posts were made tagging the CEO of Peugeot Malaysia and even Tony Fernades himself, we got a special appointment made to fix the issue ASAP, without the need to queue for 2-3 months to get it repaired unlike other hatchback Peugeot 308 cars.

The lion at its den. AKA Peugeot Service Center.

After the issue has been solved, the car generally ran fine and smooth without any niggles for the next 3 years, Where after that, things started going wrong one-by-one. Briefly, the electronics, engine, transmission and all other sorts of issues. However, those issues will be discussed here in future posts as it would probably will be too long of an article if it was to be posted now. 

Till then, enjoy some photoshoot gallery of this little lion.

Feel free to ask in the comments of anything you want to know about this car, I will surely reply as best as I can. Until then, have a nice day and stay safe, Steem-ian's!