LIGHTING is, without doubt, the new jewellery for modern cars, and the Peugeot 208 positively drips with it.

At night, the front has a stripe of LED lighting wrapped round the headlights and the rear wears distinctive ‘claws’ of LED lighting.

Inside, the test model glowed with a white LED interior light and gleaming blue strips, surrounding both the instrumentation and, most dramatically, the huge panoramic sunroof.

The good news is that all this attractive, but frivolous, bling is backed up by solid, sensible, practical qualities, essential for a car competing in one of the largest and most hotly-contested areas of the car market.

Competing against the likes of the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa, Volkswagen Polo and Mini, the 208’s appearance is streamlined, agile, dynamic and distinctive.

Peugeot is a company with a serious small-car heritage and the 208, which is available in two distinct body styles, three- and five-door, follows a series of superbly successful cars, including the 205, 206 and 207.

The profile of the three-door is more sculpted and hollowed out than the five-door, with a quarter panel reminiscent of the iconic 1980s 205.

The THP 156 ‘warm’ hatch, with sharp handling and a willing engine, also rekindles much of the sporting DNA of previous models in a much more refined package.

Compared to its predecessor, the car is lighter and slightly smaller, but paradoxically, it has more space inside, both for passengers and for cargo.

The car’s wheelbase is identical to that of its predecessor, but the adoption of more compact front seat backs helps to give significantly more space in the rear for passengers, as well as a larger boot. Other neat touches, such as dual-zone air conditioning, also help to improve passenger comfort.

The driving experience is taut and refined, and the test car has a front subframe that is reinforced to cope with the performance potential of the 156 horsepower engine.

With prices starting at about £10,000, all 208s feature an electronic stability programme, that includes hill assist with intelligent traction control, which improves the vehicle’s ability to move off and be driven on slippery road surfaces. Ninety-five per cent of the range also comes equipped with both cruise control and a speed limiter.

The classy interior is dominated by an elevated instrument display, a noticeably smaller steering wheel and a 7in colour touch screen, mounted at the top of the central console, that controls the operation of the radio, Bluetooth hands-free kit, or playing of music files via a USB connection.

Peugeot can only hope the 208 retains some of the superstar glamour that surrounded its predecessors, like the Peugeot 205, which transformed the supermini segment across the world, selling more than five million worldwide.

That was followed by the 206 which did even better, selling 7.7 million. Then came the 207 that did not do too badly either, selling more than three million since its launch in 2006 to the end of 2011.

Peugeot 208 factfile

  • Price: £16,895
  • Insurance group: 24
  • Fuel consumption (Combined): 48.7mpg
  • Top speed: 134mph
  • Length: 396.2cm/156in
  • Width: 146cm/57.5in
  • Luggage capacity: 10 cu ft
  • Fuel tank capacity: 11 gallons/50 litres
  • CO2 emissions: 135g/km
  • Warranty: 3 years/60,000 miles