Traditionally, lifestyle estates have tended to be the preserve of German manufacturers, who rather than sully their upmarket image by stooping into hatchback territory, offer estate, or 'Touring' or 'Avant' versions of their executive saloons. 

This has got Peugeot thinking that if it offers an estate version of its stylish 508 saloon, which is somewhat bigger than the German 'lifestylers' but nowhere near as prodigious as wagons from the 'commercial' end of the market, then they might just be onto a winner.

Wow factor

With its swooping lines, pillarless windows, sculpted side swathes and fancy running lights, the SW is certainly very easy on the eye and has plenty of wow factor inside. 

Along with loads of plush looking and feeling materials, the dash and central console feature futuristic looking instrumentation, banks of slender piano key-inspired switches, and Peugeot's familiar dinky, flat top and bottomed steering wheel. It all looks very flash, but maybe not to everyone's eyes. 

If you are somewhere around, or below, average height, then no matter how you adjust your seat or fiddle with the height and reach adjustable steering column, finding a comfortable driving position and locating the steering wheel in a position where it doesn't block out the instrumentation is near impossible. 

Another visually challenging aspect is rear visibility. Although the SW's roofline doesn't slope as abruptly as its saloon sibling, the view in the rear mirror is still extremely restricted, so you'll be glad that reversing sensors and a rear-view camera are standard from the Allure trim up.

Load lugging

The SW is also 4cm longer than the saloon in order to free up more boot space. 

Access to the load bay is quite narrow, but there is virtually no lip to overcome, and overall it is a usable, boxy shape that measures 530 litres with the seats in place - that's a good deal bigger than your typical compact exec-based estate, but a lot smaller than the van proportions of a Skoda Superb. 

Naturally, the seat backs split-fold 60/40 and they are easily folded by pressing buttons either side of the boot entrance or by levers next to the headrests. They lie almost flat too and free up 1,780 litres of luggage capacity. 

On the petrol side, there is a choice of 1.6-litre Puretech 180 and Puretech 225 engines, but of more interest to fleets are the 1.5-litre BlueHDi 130 and 2.0-litre BlueHDi 160 and 180 units.