Peugeot 308 Rental in Paris

We rent the Peugeot 308 in Paris and bring it to your door, so there's no desk to find and no queue to stand in. We're gorentcar, an online car rental service: you book the 308 online, we deliver it to your address or hotel, and you return it the same way. This page is about whether the 308 is the right car for your trip. 

It's the compact five-door hatch that sits between the small 208 and Peugeot's SUVs, which makes it one of the easier cars to live with in central Paris while still handling a weekend away. Below we cover what it's like to drive and park here, what fits in the boot, and how renting works.

Is the 308 the right size for your trip?

Most people choosing a 308 are really deciding between it and something a size smaller or a size bigger. Against the 208, the 308 gives you a longer body, more rear legroom and a usefully bigger boot, without becoming a car you dread parking. If there are two of you doing day trips and the odd supermarket run, the 208 is enough and cheaper to run.

The 308 earns its place when there are four of you, or when bags and a buggy start to add up. Go the other way, and it comes down to whether you need the height of an SUV. For most trips around Paris, you don't. If you want a compact hatchback in Paris rather than an SUV, the 308 sits at the roomy end of that class and covers the same ground for less.

Driving and parking it in Paris

In the city the 308 behaves like the hatchback it is: light steering, a turning circle tight enough for U-turns on a side street, and clear forward visibility. If you can choose, take the automatic. The stop-start crawl on the boulevards and around the Périphérique makes a manual tiring, and the auto is smoother for it. Two other things are worth knowing before you book, and neither shows up in a brochure.

The i-Cockpit and the driving position

Peugeot puts a small steering wheel low in your lap and asks you to read the dials over the top of it rather than through it. Plenty of drivers love it once it clicks. Some never warm to it, usually taller ones who find the rim cuts across the instruments. The fix takes about thirty seconds before you set off: drop the wheel, raise the seat, and check you can see the speed. If you can't get comfortable, tell us and we'll swap the car.

Crit'Air and the low-emission zone

Central Paris is a low-emission zone, and older cars are turned away on weekdays. A 308 is nowhere near old enough for that to be a problem. A petrol or plug-in hybrid 308 carries a Crit'Air 1 sticker, and a diesel carries Crit'Air 2. Both are cleared for the zone as the rules stand. Those rules for the most polluting cars keep shifting and may be eased again, but in a car this recent it isn't something you have to follow. The sticker goes on the windscreen, and the 308 we deliver will already have one.

Boot space and longer trips

The boot holds a little over 400 litres. In practice that's two large suitcases plus a couple of soft bags, or a full week's luggage for two with room to spare. Fold the rear seats and it takes flat-pack furniture or a bike with the front wheel off. For a city break that turns into a few days in the Loire, or a run to the coast, it's plenty.

There's a point where you've outgrown it. Size up when the trip calls for it:

• A bigger boot and an easy motorway cruiser point to the 508.
• More height and cabin space point to the larger 3008.
• Seven seats mean the 5008.

All three are part of our Peugeot rental Paris lineup, so switching from the 308 is straightforward if your plans change. None of them is worth the extra size and cost unless you actually need it.

Booking and handover

Booking happens online, and we deliver the 308 wherever suits you in Paris, whether that's a home address, an office, or a hotel lobby. Bring your licence and the card you booked with. We don't hold a deposit on your card, which is the part most people don't expect: plenty of desks block a large sum against the rental and leave it there for days. We don't, and we take debit cards as well as credit. 

Mileage is unlimited, so a long day out to Giverny or Reims and back adds nothing to the bill. When you're finished, we come and collect the car. For most trips around Paris with the odd weekend away, the 308 is the one we'd point you to: big enough for four, easy to park, and cleared for the city centre.