I think Peugeot often gets over-looked. Think about it – I’m guessing when you read Peugeot in the title you thought of small cars, hatchbacks, maybe the odd hot hatch in the 205GTI days, but you wouldn’t think of a relatively low slung sports saloon.

That’s what the 508 GT is. And while I thought the photos looked nice before it arrived, I wasn’t quite ready for the level of quality and feel – this is a genuine contender for luxury/ executive saloon buyers. It looks good – especially in the pearlescent paint – and the frameless windows give it a great GT look.

Driving position is great

The seats are comfortable, the driving position is great, and the new Peugeot i-Cockpit is really good, giving different all-digital display options depending on your preferences. This includes night-vision mode, although it’s a £1,300 option – and good as it is, I don’t think it’s worth the money. Plus it’s not quite as good as Audi’s equivalent system, but still, a nice gadget to play with.

So it looks good outside, the inside is a lovely place to be with quality leather, a nice touchscreen and even seat massagers on the model I tested. It’s well specced, has a great 360 degree reversing camera and is remarkably easy to park for a relatively big car. Boot space is excellent, and the two-litre diesel gives a nice balance of power and poke with decent fuel economy.

A handy safety device on longer journeys

The GT spec gives quite a lot of extras, including the nappa leather interior, electric tailgate, seat massager and the lane-keeping system that works with the adaptive cruise control really well. With cruise set, the ‘lane positioning assist’ helps to keep you in lane on motorways, a handy safety device on longer journeys, and one that I was quite impressed with.

There are only a few niggles that I had with this car, and they wouldn’t deter me from buying one, but it’s only fair to mention them. Some of the infotainment controls were a little temperamental on my review model – I have no idea why, and I was able to get them working again, but this would be a little annoying had I shelled out £40k on it.

A small crossover between the brands

The only other areas it lost points were again around the satnav/radio controls, which I think come from the Citroen side of the Peugeot/Citroen partnership – but that’s the only place I noticed any crossover between the two brands.

One final thing – and I appreciate this is the most first-world of all first-world problems – the motors that operate the seat massage system are just a little bit too noisy.