Question: MISRA c++:2008 was published in 2008. It was written for C++03.  

Does this refer to just the syntax of C++2003 standard or do have to use the compiler as well.

We have written our code base in VS2017 and we only have available for the Language Standard:

* ISO C++14 Standard
* ISO C++17 Standard
* ISO C++ Latest Draft Standard

There is no ISO C++03 for VS2017.

Answer: 
It will be very hard to argue and say that you are MISRA-C++ compliant when not even compiling in C++03 mode. MISRA-C++ is a safe subset of C++03, so it bans a lot of things from that standard. If you run off and compile for C++11 or later, all bets are off.

Visual Studio is not suitable for the kind of mission-critical applications that MISRA was designed for. Nor is C++11 or later. I'd avoid C++ entirely for such applications, even though it is theoretically possible to write safe C++ programs, if you have lots of knowledge about what machine code the compiler generates.
From what I can see on their website, the MISRA standard is not public, so there's really no way for the average person to answer this question. It's probably mostly an issue of what, if any, of the Standard C++ Library you can use and meet the MIRSA requirements.

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> I suspect given the vast majority of the Standard C++ library is written assuming C++ exception handling, which is generally not considered safe in critical systems, you aren't supposed to use the bulk of the Standard C++ Library for this application. Again, that's just a guess.
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Visual C++ does not claim conformance for MISRA, and VS 2017 is a "C++14" compiler. It does not have a formal compliance mode for older C++ standards.