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By Goh De No and Bandar Seri Begawan
The latest 4008, Peugeot's first introduction of an SUV, is indeed a gorgeous car, but don't be fooled by its refined looks as the car can handle itself relatively well in harsher off-road conditions.
The 4008 launch was held in Cascais, Portugal, mid-April and the introduction test-drive brought us along the sweeping views of UNESCO World Heritage Site, Sintra, where old palaces and castle reside, left-over from earlier Portuguese times.
Besides the attractive views, we also drove the car to a make-shift offroad site, where the car was given the opportunity to show-off its 4WD capabilities.
As I got out of the car to look at what we were going to drive through, up and down a rather steep slope; over harsh unpaved roads, and so on, basically roads that you really wouldn't want to drive a new car over, I had actually doubted the car's ability to get through the course.
Well, you can't really blame me, because the car looks too pretty to be able to handle that rough terrain, and obviously Peugeot wouldn't want to give a track its car wouldn't be able to handle.
Sure enough, I engaged the 4WD (it's on demand), and the car neatly cleared every hurdle in front of it.
So you get the idea, the car looks really good and it has some offroad abilities, but here comes the bad part, the 4008 is a vehicle Peugeot made in cooperation with Mitsubishi, and it's actually based on the chassis of the Japanese ASX.
The engine is Peugeot, the looks is Peugeot, but the interior and base is not very Peugeot.
When I got in the 4008 and started the trip, I couldn't help but be reminded of my old 1996 diesel Mitsubishi Pajero.
It doesn't sit as high as the Pajero, but it certainly did feel like I was driving it all over again.
 
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