As a tow car, the Peugeot 308’s strongest point is the engine. With 150bhp and 270lb ft of torque, the 2.0 Blue HDi pulled car and caravan from 30-60mph in 13.6 seconds.

While there’s no arguing with the car’s performance against the stopwatch, stability at speed was not as strong. More than one driver had a nervous moment towing with the 308, especially in windy conditions.

In the lane-change test the 308 also fell a long way short of the best tow cars, and our test driver didn’t attempt a third and final run because the car had been so out of shape on the second run.

The Peugeot made a much better fist of the hill-start test, thanks to the electronic parking brake, automatic gearbox and strong engine. The brake held the outfit still on the 1-in-6 slope, the gearbox made pulling away simple, and the engine supplied more than enough muscle to pull to the top of the hill.

The 470-litre boot is large for a car of this size, and nearly swallowed every item of holiday luggage. However, there’s no Trailer Stability Programme and the towing electrics are awkward to access.

Peugeot’s official kerbweight for the 308 looked rather high to us. We took the car to a weighbridge with an almost full tank of fuel and found it weighed 1480kg with no driver on board, so bear this in mind when matching the 308 to a caravan or trailer.