Ahhh, kids. Wonderful little things. So full of life, of fun, of energy. They are the future, you know. Of course, they’re also insane little tyrants, harbingers of jam-encrusted doom and the bane of every car designer. It is virtually impossible to design a car that can keep kids happy on a long journey and still keep it within the bounds of affordability. The only option I can think of would be a Mercedes Sprinter with a built-in Pixar-only cinema, a ball-pit and panoramic side windows. And it would all have to be hose-out.
Well, while I’m dreaming about that, here comes Opel’s Meriva for an extended stay at eDrive Towers, where the eDrive Junior 1 (6 years old) and eDrive Junior 2 (not quite 2 yet) will be able to do things, drop things and spread things that even Opel’s finest engineers at Russelsheim won’t have been able to think of.
It makes a good first impression, the Meriva. It looks good in its oh-so-trendy white paint job and the styling is about as handsome and distinctive as you could expect of a me-too mono-volume MPV. The little kinks in the window line atop the rear doors are questionable, aesthetically, but they do allow a better view out for rear seat passengers, and that’s a good thing.
Inside, the cabin trim is essentially lifted straight from the Astra which is in turn lifted more or less straight from the Insignia, so you’re getting very high quality and a good level of spec. Our SC spec car came with the optional Winter Pack which includes heated front seats and a heated steering wheel, which would have seemed a bit ridiculous if not for the fact that April brought a sudden cold snap with it. The seats themselves are covered in an interesting space-agey style cloth that seems very hard-wearing and (hopefully) stain resistant. Number 2 Son will be putting that to a rigorous examination shortly.
Out back there’s a decent 397-litre boot, that can be expanded by flipping the rear seats down to a whopping 1,400-litres if you load it to the roof. Those rear seats can also do a neat trick. Fold the centre seat flat and the outer two can slide back and inwards to create more leg and shoulder-room. It’s a system that was pioneered on the first generation Meriva, but I seem to recall that the effect was greater on the old car; the amount of movement doesn’t seem as great here.
And of course, there’s the doors. The tradition is to call them ‘Suicide’ doors, which seems a touch harsh (the name is alleged to come from the thirties gangster era; it’s a lot easier to shove some poor patsy from a moving car if the wind is holding the door open for you). Opel would prefer you call them FlexDoors and they are a neat and useful little innovation. To be fair, you probably need to be loading kids in and out of the back to appreciate them to the fullest. They’re most useful when fitting big, heavy child safety seats. In a conventional car, you would have to open the door, lean in and twist yourself around to fit the seat and anchor the seatbelt. With the Meriva, you pop the door and lean straight in, in the direction you need to. Besides, the kids really do love them. At least so far, the doors are a pleasing novelty when climbing aboard.
A final note about the engine. Opel has given us the 130bhp 1.7 CDTI engine to test, which is a bit of an old stager, with its roots in an Isuzu-sourced unit from the early nineties. It’s been fitted since with the latest injection and emissions systems, and the power output and economy figures (5.3-litres per 100km, 139g/km of Co2) seem just fine, but will it give its age away in refinement or performance terms? We’ll see.
For now though, the Meriva is settling in nicely to a bit of hard family work. Outings are being planned, liberal use is being made by certain passengers of the fold-down tables in the back and the space and ease of use granted by those clever doors are more than welcome.
It’s even proving good to drive so far, an occasionally too-firm ride apart. So, can the Meriva, with its trick doors and stylish cabin, finally make family MPV motoring seem like worth having kids for?
No comments:
Post a Comment