The 508SW ticks an awful lot of boxes for the company car driver

P11D (BiK): £32.280 (26%) MPG/CO2: 52.4-62mpg (WLTP) /94g/km (NEDC Correlated) Test MPG: 48.6mpg

As with all of our long-term cars, the big Peugeot has hardly been racking up the miles over the last five months. But life has not been uneventful. Just before lockdown the 508 picked up a cracked windscreen, expertly replaced by Auto Windscreens. Though they were capable of resetting the ADAS equipment too, Peugeot insisted that the car go to its own dealer for the work, so it was back to Desira in Bury St Edmunds for a socially distanced check of the various radars and cameras that lurk behind the rear view mirror.

Since then, the Peugeot has slipped faultlessly into everyday life. It has been pressed into various load carrying duties, for the construction of a garden shed and several trips to the local tip when it reopened. Despite the sportily sloping lines at the rear, that powered hatch reveals a surprisingly spacious load bay, with the rear seats folded forwards.

As work has returned to something resembling normality, so the journey distances have increased and it is here that the 508 really shines. Despite its fairly conservative engine, it is a superb long-distance cruiser, thanks in part to that silky smooth eight-speed auto box. The seats are all-day comfortable and the TomTom-powered navigation has never fails to guide me to my destination.

While crossover and SUV growth continues apace, I still have a soft spot for a decent, relatively compact, estate and the 508SW ticks an awful lot of boxes. It may not be the obvious choice, but it well worth a test drive.