Road Test: Ford B-Max 1.0 EcoBoost Titanium

Price as tested: €23,170

+ Doors, comfort, engine, chassis, quality
– 1.0 not economical enough, needs more space in the back
= Better than the diesel version but still flawed

News: Renault ditches Scenic, launches XMOD

Renault has decided to stop making the Scenic. That might sound like a bit of a shock, but hang on, the devil is in the detail. The seven-seat Grand Scenic will continue on as one of Europe's best-selling medium-sized MPVs, but the five-seat Scenic is now going to be dropped, and replaced by a new model called the Scenic XMOD. 

News: Citroen C3 Picasso gets updated

One of our favourite cars, the Citroen CS Picasso (check out our recent long term test HERE) is getting an update and freshen up for 2013, but sad to say, there's a small note of disappointment in the news.

News: Ford claims B-Max MPV is child-proof

Ford is claiming that its newly-launched B-Max MPV has a child-proof interior. They obviously haven't met my kids...

Every parent is familiar with the challenge of keeping a new car clean in the face of everyday use by children and pets. Ford has now tried to make that job easier for mums and dads by “child-proofing” the new B-MAX.

Engineers subjected the new B-MAX to laboratory tests that simulate the toughest treatment that children and pets can dish out, including soaking materials in milk and fizzy drinks; testing fabrics 0with a “mace”; and pounding plastics with a heavy rubber ball.

“By testing for everything from soft drink spills to muddy boots, we’ve made sure the B-MAX interior is ready for anything,” said Mark Montgomery, senior materials engineer, Ford of Europe. “I’ve got young children myself, so I’m very familiar with the mess they can create.”

Samples of all leathers and fabrics used in the Ford B-MAX’s interior were tested for stain resistance and ease of cleaning after being soaked for 24 hours in the liquids and being smeared with soil and grease.

Engineers also tested resistance to damage that can be caused by abrasive zips and fasteners found on children’s clothing and bags. The “mace test” used a metal ball with needle-sharp spikes to brush fabrics 600 times and replicate the effect of snagging zips and studs. Engineers also carried out a special test to repeatedly rub the seat material with Velcro.

Impact tests – conducted at temperatures as low as -30 degrees Centigrade when plastic is more brittle – used a rubber ball 10 times heavier than a regulation football to ensure that plastic parts could withstand bumps and knocks. Fabrics were also rubbed 60,000 times in a 17-hour non-stop wear test; metal spikes were scraped across plastic parts to test scratch resistance; and carpets were checked for durability on a special test rig fitted with rough abrasion wheels.

“These tests make sure we’ve done everything possible to make sure the car looks as good the thousandth time that families sit in it as it does the first time,” added Montgomery.

Road Test: Volkswagen Caravelle 2.0 TDI 140 DSG Highline

Price as tested: €68,725

+ Huge space, versatility, classy, comfy, luxurious, quality
– Occasionally harsh ride, price tag, tax, not quick
= One of the world's great all-rounders

You know it’s going to be a good Saturday night when you get to the front of the taxi queue and there’s something nice waiting to whisk you home. Not just another sad, tired old Japanese or European family saloon with 100,00k on the clock and nasty aftermarket seat covers. No, it’s a good Saturday night when your chariot with a yellow roof bar is a nice squidgy old Merc E-Class, or maybe even a big old Lexus LS400 – mellowed by age but still full of creaky, comfy leather and with a ride quality from back before everyone got obsessed with the Nurburgring. Nice.

Well, if you want to have that feeling everyday, then you’ll be needing one of these. A Volkswagen Caravelle in full-on, leather and everything spec. It’s probably the ultimate taxi, the perfect airport run car and in many ways is the best family car you could possibly buy.

It is, of course, basically a mechanically identical VW Transporter T5, but one what’s been upgraded to full tart’s handbag specification. So, up front you get superbly comfy leather seats, a DSG dual-clutch automatic gearbox, a touch-screen stereo and split-zone climate. But, as with all great chauffeur’s cars, the best place to be in the Caravelle is in the back. There you will find five more seats – two individual, swiveling Captain’s chairs and a braod bench. All of these are upholstered in the same lovely leather you’ll find up front and the rear bench slides back and forth to allow you to choose between more luggage space or more comfort for your passengers. They also all fold flat and I can tell you from personal experience that you can then get a double divan bed and mattress in the back. And a few bedside lockers. Luxurious, it may be but it hasn’t forgotten its van roots entirely.

Under the bonnet is VW’s venerable 2.0-litre TDI diesel with 140bhp and 340Nm of torque, Which sounds like a lot, but unladen, the Caravelle weighs a not inconsiderable 2,153kg, so while it’s not what you’d call sluggish, neither will you be taking on and beating GTIs at the lights.

No matter, what the Caravelle is about is comfort, and the relaxed and relaxing performance encourages you to drop your hands down to the 8-and-4 driving position (as recommended to professional drivers by Rolls-Royce as it “significantly reduces any chance of perturbing your rear seat passengers”) and go about your business that much more slowly. It will still happily wind its way up to a cruise-controlled 120kmh on the motorway and when it does that, you can really relax (within the bounds of keeping an eye on things, of course). The front of the Caravelle is a wonderfully comfortable place to be, damn near as good as the back.

Obviously when you get to a corner, you’re going to be reminded in no uncertain terms that this is a tall, heavy commercial vehicle and not a sports saloon. It heels over onto the outside wheel, the steering is slow and if you’re asking too many questions of it the ride just gets ridiculously crashy and bumpy. Much better, once again, to slow down and take the relaxed path home.

You will be tempted to stop off though. With the folding centre table in the back, the Caravelle makes an absolutely ideal portable picnic spot, so requests from the back seats for more sandwiches and Taytos are frequent. Other stops can be kept to a reasonable minimum though – Volkswagen quotes 8.2-litres per 100km average fuel consumption and we managed to get mid-nines, so it’s believeable. The fact that it emits 216g/km of Co2 (slightly less than the six-speed manual manages, actually) and isn’t taxed as a commercial vehicle though means you’ll have to pay the full whack of €1,200 Band F tax and with a purchase price hovering around the €68,000 mark, this is not going to be a cheap way to haul your family around.

That said though, this is a truly multi purpose vehicle and in that sense it makes a mockery of other, lesser cars that claim the same mantle. What others mean when they say MPV is that they’ve basically got a lot of seats. What the Caravelle means is that it is truly multi-purpose. Clean it up and, especially in the black paint of our test car, it’s handsome and crisp looking enough to mix it effortlessly in the executive car park. We’ve already alluded to its abilities as a taxi, van, airport tender and picnic spot, but it’s equally adept at being a shopping trolley, school bus, work commuter, and, thanks to the built-in window blinds and my wife’s preference for swimming in the seat, a handy and modesty-preserving beach hut. Just don’t hit the electric side door ‘open’ button on the key fob when she’s half way through getting changed. That was a bit cruel, actually...

Classy, cool and astonishingly useful, it’s hard (price and ride quality apart) to pick many holes in the Caravelle’s performance. Being a Transporter means that it should prove robust and reliable and all the Caravelle trimmings make it feel genuinely luxurious. What more can I say other than that, alongside the Toyota GT86 and Jeep Grand Cherokee, it has found a place in my imaginary Lotto-win garage.

Facts & Figures
Volkswagen Caravelle 2.0 TDI 140bhp DSG Highline
Price as tested: €68,725
Range price: €52,850 to €81,165
Capacity: 1,968cc
Power: 140bhp
Torque: 340Nm
Top speed: 172kmh
0-100kmh: 14.7sec
Economy: 8.2l-100km (34.4mpg)
CO2 emissions: 216g/km
VRT Band: F. €1,200 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 4-star adult, 4-star child, 1-star pedestrian (results for 2008 T5 test)

Road Test: Renault Scenic 1.6 dCi Bose Edition

Price as tested: €32,390

+ Looks good, spacious, comfy, punchy, cracking stereo
– Quite pricey, mushy steering
= Proves that MPVs don’t have to be a fun-free zone



You know that old cliche about buying a people carrier being the equivalent of social death? An admission that your youth is gone and your virility has crumbled to dust? I have felt the icy hand of that concept close to the hairs on the back of my neck. Once, a decade or more ago, I found my (still single and child-less) self in the car park of a major out of town driving centre driving a large, practical, mumsy people carrier. You should have heard the silent scream that went off in my head. It was quite something.

These days, things have changed somewhat. I’ve changed for a start. Married. Two kids. House in the ‘burbs. I can see now the appeal, even the necessity of a people carrier. People carriers have changed too. The Ford S-Max proved that a tall roof and seven seats was not inimical to driving enjoyment and others have at least attempted to follow suit.

And when the Renault Scenic Bose Edition rocked up on my driveway, it seemed to be almost purpose designed to appeal to me. With white coachwork set off by gorgeous (and faintly seventies in style) alloy wheels, the Scenic was looking pretty tasty for Soccer Mom transport. And that badge on the flank; Bose. Now, techie geek that I am, I know at first hand that no-one, and I do mean no-one, makes stereos quite like Bose. They may not have the whizz-bang design elements of some other hi-fis, but those deceptively simple grey and white boxes can provide sound like nothing else. Rich, warm, crisp, perfect. A family motor with that kind of sound system can really tickle my fancy.

Before we get to that though, there’s the small matter of the engine to deal with. Renault’s old range-topping 1.9 dCi diesel is now dead and it’s been replaced by this all-new 1.6-litre unit which matches the outgoing one for power with 130bhp yet manages just 114g/km on the Co2 emissions cycle and claims an average of 4.4-litres per 100km fuel consumption. Now, as is so often the case, that claim is pure bunkum and I managed to eke around 6.0-litres per 100km out of it, but that’s still not bad considering that a lot of that mileage was four-up with luggage and much of it was on the motorway. It’s also reasonably refined (especially at cruising speed, less so at low speeds) and pulls strongly. 0-100kmh in 11secs doesn’t sound too brisk, but it feels punchier than that through the gears.

Inside, thanks to the Bose Edition upgrades, the Scenic is looking better than ever before. The TFT digital instrument display is rather nice, and you can theoretically customise the display to your taste. I say theoretically because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to do it. My six year old son did it in an instant, so I may hire him out as an aid to befuddled Scenic owners.

The seats, wrapped in an enticing mix of black leather and Alcantara, are really lovely, firmly supportive on a long run but with just enough of that classic Renault squidge to feel luxurious. Space is decent, but not exceptional. Kids will be more than happy in the middle row, but bulky child seats will eat quickly into the available space and adults will find the seats themselves a touch narrow. It’s a common failing amongst compact seven-seat MPVs, but it’s partly compensated for by a boot that’s a massive 564-litres if you keep the third-row seats folded into the floor. That’s one thing I do love about MPVs; that pleasant feeling of not having to plan the packing up. Just fling everything into the boot with gay abandon.

To drive, the Scenic is as it ever was; not great but not bad either. On first re-acquaintance, it still has the mushy steering and generous roll angles that it’s always had. Such things are anathema to the driving enthusiast, of course, but the payoff is a ride quality that soaks up all but the very worst excesses of Irish roads, so it’s an acceptable trade-off. Better yet, when the kids are asleep and your wife’s not paying attention, you’ll find that you can push through the mush and get the Scenic a bit more up and at ‘em in the corners. Do that, and you’ll find plenty of front end bite and also that the roll stops and holds pretty quickly. Once learned you’ll find that the Scenic can be hustled along quite nicely.

Now for the Bose bit. As far as I can tell, Bose’s contribution to the Scenic is just the front speakers. There were no Bose logos on the rear ones, and no indication that Bose has been tinkering with the internals of the standard-fit Renault stereo. Now, my standard stereo test (John Barry’s theme from Zulu, played LOUD) showed that the Scenic’s sound system is pretty terrific, but I had been expecting awesome. Perhaps the boomy, echo-y surrounds of a big monobox shape are just too much for even Bose to overcome? Or maybe the budget didn’t allow more than a few simple tweaks to the sound. Whatever, it’s still head and shoulders above a standard car stereo, just not quite the enveloping experience I had been hoping for.

Speaking of budgets, your own will have to be pretty generous. Clocking in at €32k (there is a cheaper 1.5 dCi Bose edition) makes the Scenic Bose pretty pricey for a family car. Far be it from me to make assumptions about other families’ finances, but I certainly couldn’t afford the repayments on that.

Which is a shame as the Scenic Bose strikes just about the ideal family car balance. It’s got all the big, spacious, comfy and practical stuff down pat. It’s decently economical and rides well. Yet, in the precise spec of our test car, it looked pretty cool, had an inviting interior, a kick-ass stereo and a modicum of driving fun in its chassis. Thank you, Renault, for proving that family motoring really can be a phrase, not a sentence. Just make it a bit more affordable next time, eh?


Renault Grand Scenic 1.6 dCi Bose Edition
Price: €32,390
Range price: €23,990 to €32,390
Capacity: 1,598cc
Power: 130bhp
Torque: 320Nm
Top speed: 183kmh
0-100kmh: 11.1sec
Economy: 4.4-100km (62mpg)
CO2 emissions: 114g/km
Tax Band: A. €160 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 91% adult, 76% child, 42% pedestrian, 99% safety assist

Road Test: Fiat 500L 1.3 MultiJet PopStar

Price as tested: €22,000 (approx)

+ Masses of cabin space, cute styling, good quality, well priced
– Only ordinary to drive
= Could be the best all-round Fiat yet


There is one caveat that needs to be observed for all that follows. Italian car launches are notoriously difficult things to actually assess a car on. Our time with the new 500L was relatively brief, and most of the mileage was in the tight, urban confines of downtown Turin. And we got lost, which never helps. So, now that you’re aware of all that, we can begin...

Fiat is in bad need of a big hit. Hmmm. I seem to have written those words before, five years ago, just before the Italians launched the little 500, the sales of which pulled the company back from the financial abyss.

Now though, while the abyss is not so deep as it was in 2006 and Fiat is not teetering on the edge of it (thanks to its finances being well and truly pumped up by a resurgent Chrysler), sales are falling in its European heartlands and with investment being reduced and factories being shut down, Turin needs a new sprinkling of the 500's magic.

And this, the 500L, is the car Fiat hopes will revive its European fortunes. Although it carries the 500 name, it's actually only distantly mechanically related to the chic city car. It's a 4.15-metre long MPV, styled to looks closer to an SUV and with a simply massive cabin for stuffing your family into. When they say the L stands for Large, they really weren't kidding. the 500L towers over a tiny 500 hatch, and there's sufficient cabin space for a six-footer to have genuine lounging space in the back seats. Honestly, space in the back makes a mockery of almost every rival I can think of. A Focus, Golf or Astra feels ridiculously tight in comparison and even such other high-roofed competition as the Citroen C3 Picasso and Opel Meriva don’t have the legroom to compete.

The fact that the cabin also looks and feels of very high quality indicates that Fiat is still pushing well along the road to eradicating its old reputation for fragility, however difficult it may be to unstick that impression from Irish minds. All the surfaces inside have a pleasingly hefty, yet silky, feel and as long as you specify some of the brighter colour options, it feels like a warm, welcoming place to be. The steering wheel, slightly squared off as it is in the new Panda, feels especially good and the complex, three-movement exterior door handles do a great job of making the car feel techie and interesting just by yanking the door open.

While Irish specs have yet to be decided (and a circa €22,000 price for the 1.3 MultiJet diesel model has still to be agreed) there will be an awful lot of high-end optional extra available, including a city safety self braking setup, a 1.5-metre long glass roof and a stereo designed by hip-hop legend Dr. Dre (ask your kids...) and even an in-car Lavazza espresso maker that slots into one of the cupholders. Yes, really. You have to tick the options box for this, really, you do. We all thought it was a late April fool when we saw the press release...

Standard features include a 5" touch-screen infotainment system with Bluetooth connection for your phone and music player and an EcoDrive Live function that monitors your driving, admonishes you for being too profligate and which Fiat claims (somewhat implausibly) can save you up to 1,200-litres of fuel over the life of the car.

The rear seats fold and tumble with just a quick flick of a button and the 400-litre boot has an adjustable floor that allows you to segregate the shopping from the peat briquettes, or perhaps the laundry from the wet dog.

Our test car has the 85bhp 1.3 MultiJet diesel which boasts a 110g/km Co2 figure and better than 62mpg on average. But with only 200Nm of torque to haul around 1,300kg of 500 (and that's an empty kerb weight) it struggles to do anything to excite. It's a decent, engine, with good refinement but little verve and a rubbery five-speed manual gearbox doesn't help either. A 0-100kmh time of 14.9secs shows you how hard it’s having to work, but in fairness, it only rarely feels all that slow.

When the 500L arrives in Irish dealers at the end of the year, a 105bhp 1.6-litre diesel should be available and that will doubtless prove a better match. Petrol-heads, if any remain in Ireland, might be enticed by the 105bhp two-cylinder 112g/km TwinAir engine. We may not get the choice though, as Fiat Ireland is keen to keep the range as streamlined and simple as possible, so it might be that the only 500L we will get in Ireland will be this 1.3 Pop Star spec.

To drive, the 500L feels fine, but it lacks the quiet stolidness of a Skoda Yeti or the pin-sharp steering of a Mini Countryman. It's competent, capable and has nicely weighted steering and a good, if occasionally bobbly, ride quality but there are few causes for complaint here. Like the engine, it's safe but not really engaging.

Style-wise, it tries to take 500 design cues and inflate them to a much bigger size which, as Porsche found trying to translate a 911 coupe into a Cayenne SUV, isn't entirely successful. It looks good in certain colours, odd in others (beige is an especially bad choice) but certainly distinctive and different.

But it's that cavernous cabin that really sells the 500L. Families will love it for its sheer space, its brightness and its adaptability. Fold the front seat flat and you can fill the 500L with IKEA flat packs and still have space left for a driver and rear seat passenger while kids will have no trouble at all in filling the 22 interior pockets and cubbies. The fact that it seems on this encounter to be robustly built will mollify the worries of their parents.

Its sales prospects in Ireland depend entirely on whether enough Irish buyers are willing to look past their old prejudices about the brand. Nissan proved with the Qashqai that this was a serious possibility, and who a few years ago took either Hyundai or Kia seriously? Those willing to suspend disbelief long enough to try a 500L will find it an engaging proposal.



Fiat 500L 1.3 MultiJet Pop Star
Price as tested: €22,000 (approx)
Price range: TBA
Capacity: 1,248cc
Power: 85bhp
Torque: 200Nm
Top speed: n/a
0-100kmh: 14.9sec
Economy: 4.2l-100km (67.2mpg)
CO2 emissions: 110g/km
Road Tax Band: A €160
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested

Road Test: Mercedes-Benz B180 CDI BlueEfficiency

Price as tested: €29,330

+ Massive space, quality cabin, comfort, economy and emissions
– Noise, stiff price tag
= Too practical for its own good?

The old Mercedes-Benz B-Class was always a bit of a curio. Yes, it was spacious and practical, but then so was the only slightly smaller A-Class, and being based on the original split-floor A-Class chassis left the B with a legacy of awkward handling and an uncomfortable, flat-floor driving position. Mind you, even with an eye-watering price tag for what was, essentially, a small five-door hatch, it sold pretty strongly, so a successor that stuck closely to the same format was always going to happen along.

Mercedes is replacing both the B-Class and A-Class in one year, and we’ll see the all-new A at the Geneva motor show in March, and in sale in Mercedes-Benz forecourts in the new year. The B precedes its smaller brother by almost a full year, but this time around, it’s mission is much more clearly defined. With the new A-Class becoming a lower, aggressively sporty rival to the Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series, the new B has a simpler job; it’s to be the practical one; the one you buy when the kids’ legs are getting longer and boot space becomes more of an overriding concern than pin-sharp handling.

For all of which, the new B-Class isn’t a bad old thing to drive. The old one drove like a shopping trolley. You were just never convinced that any one wheel knew what any of the other three were up to. It just never felt right. The new B, riding on a platform that’s closely related to that of the new A-Class, so the old flat-floor is gone, which means you get a proper driving position. At last. And this time, you feel that the chassis engineers have done a decent job. It does roll a lot in the corners, but there is a suppleness to the ride (unless you go for the optional 18” wheels, when things get a bit knobblier) and a secure, grippy feel to the front end that bodes well for the smaller, lighter A-Class. Like almost all Mercs, the B-Class actually feels better the more you ask of it, but attacking a series of corners hardly seems appropriate in such an obviously family-centric car.

Thankfully, most of the other basics have been gotten right. There is a simply staggering amount of space in the back; with more legroom even than the E-Class saloon. The window-sill is a little higher than ideal when you’re carrying inquisitive young persons in the back, but the lightness and airiness of the cabin is very welcome. The boot’s massive too, 486-litres expanding to 1,500-litres when you fold the back seats flat.

Up front, there’s a smart new dashboard that lifts obvious cues from the SLK and SLS sportscars. Well, it lifts the airvents at any rate and they do raise the tone of a cabin that would otherwise look quite plain and, in some places, a bit cheap. The driving position is, as mentioned, far better than before now, with a proper footwell to stretch your legs and feet into, and a fully electronic parking brake to replace the dreadful old push-with-your-feet-pull-with-your-hands ‘Merican style one. One thing though; the awkward angle (and tension) of the throttle pedal will give you leg-ache on a long journey, so speccing cruise control is a must. Of course, you might think cruise would be standard on a car with this price tag...

Safety seems almost ludicrously high on the agenda. Even the most basic B-Class gets a lengthy list of standard safety gear, including ESP, ABS, Attention Assist that warns you if it detects you’re dozing off, hill-start assist, a bevy of airbags, including a knee bag for the driver and a helpful little thing called Collision Prevention Assist, which flashes up a warning light in the speedo if it notices you’re following the car in front too closely. That should be permanently lit, given the (bad) habits of most Irish drivers...

The primary engine for the B-Class in Ireland will be the 180 CDI diesel, which, unusually these days, actually matches its name by being 1.8-litres in displacement. There is a B200 CDI diesel which is essentially the same unit, but pumps out 134bhp to the B180’s 110bhp. Both hit a remarkable 115g/km Co2 emissions rating, which means you’’ll pay just €160 a year in motor tax, and funnily enough Mercedes claims identical 4.4-litres per 100km (4.6l/100km with the seven-speed auto box) for both engines. In fact, the B200 only betters the B180’s 0-100kmh sprint time by just over a second, so it hardly seems worth the extra outlay of €31,870 compared to €29,330 for the most basic B180.

It’s a decent engine too, feeling more than grunty enough in basic B180 spec for even enthusiastic back-road driving and on the motorway, there’s plenty of grunt to flow with fast-moving traffic. Motorways do show up the B-Class’ one major shortcoming though; noise. Above 100kmh there’s just too much wind and road noise for comfort, below that mark the engine can be heard gurgling away to itself on even a light throttle. It’s not an overtly intrusive noise from the engine, it’s more just there. Present.

Both variations can be had with either six-speed manual or seven-speed 7G-DCT dual-clutch paddle-shift auto transmission, which is fast becoming every bit as good as the benchmark Volkswagen DSG. Stop-start is standard on both transmissions, which helps explain the excellent economy and emissions ratings.

Of the two, despite the manual’s pleasingly easy-going shift (surely a first for a Mercedes) it’s the 7G one we’d recommend, with its lightning-fast changes, excellent sport mode and the fact that the column-mounted gear selector clears up some useful extra storage space on the centre console. On the opposite side, the typical Mercedes single stalk for controlling the lights, wipers and indicators remains, but it’s been slimmed down and made more delicate in appearance and touch. A shame; we liked the clunky simplicity of the old one.

So, the B-Class is pretty impressive in almost every respect, but one has to wonder; who exactly is going to buy it? The ‘Yummy Mummy’ brigade will doubtless have defected to the more stylish (if less spacious and useful) likes of the Audi Q3 or BMW X1, or even the more expensive Range Rover Evoque. The B’s high price tag and lack of seven seats will deter the upwardly-mobile family set (if indeed such a demographic still exists) and the more elderly buyer, for whom the B-Class seems to be ideally designed with its space, comfort and high seating position, are surely looking for better value for money these days.

Us? Well, it’s a good car, much more so than its predecessor, but we’ll wait for the lower, sportier A-Class, thanks.


Facts & Figures

Mercedes-Benz B180 CDI BlueEfficiency
Price as tested: €29,330
Range price: €29,330 to €38,575
Capacity: 1,796cc
Power: 110bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Top speed: 190kmh
0-100kmh: 10.9sec
Economy: 4.4-100km (62mpg)
CO2 emissions: 115g/km
VRT Band: A. €160 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 97% adult, 81% child, 56% pedestrian, 86% safety assist

Road Test: Opel Zafira Tourer 2.0 CDTI EcoFlex

Price as tested: €30,495

+ Handsome, spacious, deft chassis, high quality
– Confusing badge and market position, 3rd row not spacious enough, engine noise
= Premium product but who will buy it?



The Zafira Tourer has two difficult jobs to do. First off, it has to be a competitor to the brilliant Ford S-Max, a car that has been a roaring success across Europe, if not so much in Ireland. Second, along with the Insignia saloon and Astra GTC coupe, it has to convince people that Opel can be taken seriously as a premium badge with a premium price tag. With sister brand Chevrolet increasingly making European inroads, Opel has no choice but to move upmarket, something that no mass-market car maker has ever managed to do.

But at least Opel is starting the right way; by getting the product right first, and not by trying to over-hype the marketing side of things. The Insignia can stand direct comparison to the likes of the Audi A4, the Astra GTC is handsome and capable enough to give the VW Scirocco and the Zafira Tourer... well, what is it here for, exactly?

Before we get onto the good bits and bad bits of the vehicle itself, it’s worth considering the marketing position. Who, exactly, is going to buy a premium MPV these days? MPVs are, distinctly, family cars. In other markets, there is a small, but significant, market for practically-minded people who want a cushy, pricey people carrier but in Ireland, premium equals saloon. Even an estate is a stretch for those in the premium market, while sensible family buyers simply purchase on price, and Opel will be realigning the price of the existing Zafira, down to a very reasonable €25k, to entice those people.

Which leaves the Zafira Tourer where exactly? It’s reasonably keenly priced, at €28,495 basic, in the seven-seat market, but that’s a price that soon inflates once you start adding trim or equipment. So, it’s a stretch, and probably a stretch too far, for hard-pressed family car buyers, and simply not on the radar for premium badge shoppers. And it has the same name as a car costing €3k less. Which could leave the Tourer marooned between audiences.

Which would be a shame, as it’s actually in isolation a very good car and a dramatic improvement on the existing Zafira. The current car is too plain inside, too bouncy in its ride and too undistinguished in its styling for our taste. The Tourer addresses, successfully, pretty much all of those complaints. It looks great, for a kick-off, with very sharp, layered styling that makes it one of the best looking monospace cars we’ve ever clapped eyes on.

Inside too, Opel’s stylists have done a very successful job; everything looks swoopy and cool, with most of the switchgear lifted straight from the Insignia (nothing wrong with that) and there’s a sense of very high quality. Our test car was a final pre-production prototype, so there were some unfinished surfaces and items, but even taking those into account, the Tourer’s cabin more than lives up to Opel’s hopes for premium status. And the view out is as good, thanks to dramatic-looking split a-pillars that fork down to form a massive quarterlight, which does wonders for forward visibility.

Of course, it’s practical. There’s lots of space in the middle row, and the seats are just as comfy in the back as they are in the front (very) but the disappointment comes when you try to climb in the back row; there’s just not enough room, even compared to the Ford S-Max which is hardly the best-endowed car in that sense. In the Ford, adults can fit, albeit only for short journeys. In the Tourer, it would be a squeeze even for a short hop. Kids only.

Behind the headlights (which look as if they have been taken straight from advanced Ampera range-extender hybrid) lies the 2.0-litre CDTI turbo diesel with 130bhp. Which sounds like not quite enough for a car that weighs 1,571kg with only one person on board. But actually, the Tourer feels quite sprightly, net of a touch of turbo lag. It is noisy though. OK, again, this one was a pre-prod early build car, but still, a bit too much gurgle and grump for our tastes.

Economy is, if it can match Opel’s claims, little short of excellent. Now, we haven’t had a chance to test the claimed figures (not enough time in the car yet) but our experience with an Insignia with the 160bhp version of the same engine suggests that they might not be too far out. 4.5-litres per 100km is pretty good, just over 62mpg, and its 119g/km Co2 rating means that you’ll be paying just €160 a year, whatever the real-world fuel economy turns out like.

The chassis is a peach though. It doesn’t quite engage the driver as much as an S-Max would but otherwise, the news is all good. The steering feels sharp and well weighted, the ride (praise be!) is firm but never jiggly or poorly controlled and the overall feeling is of a car that is well balanced between the demands of keeping things entertaining for the driver yet comfy for the passengers.

So, taken on its own, the Zafira Tourer is nothing short of a success. It looks, feels and drives the part, keeps the usefulness of the old Zafira but adds a thick veneer of dynamic competence and premium-esque design and quality.

If the marketing works out, then perhaps customers will come to the Zafira Tourer, if they take one for a test drive, they’d be hard pressed not to be impressed. But, given the tough competition in the car market, anyone coming in with a proposition that reads “Better, but it’ll cost you” is going to find life very hard indeed.


Facts & Figures

Opel Zafira Tourer 2.0 CDTI Ecoflex SC
Price as tested: €30,495
Range price: €28,495 to €38,995
Capacity: 1,956cc
Power: 130bhp
Torque: 300Nm
Top speed: 193kmh
0-100kmh: 11.4sec
Economy: 4.5l-100km (62.7mpg)
CO2 emissions: 119g/km
VRT Band: A. €160 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 94% adult, 83% child, 53% pedestrian, 86% safety assist

Long Term Test: Opel Meriva

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?

Road Test: Seat Alhambra 2.0 TDI 140 Reference

Price as tested: €38,743

+ Massive space, sliding doors, comfy, well made
– Totally contrary to Seat’s sporting image, missing some key equipment
= Just not the kind of car Seat should be building


Let me start first off by saying that I genuinely, properly like Seats. Four have passed through the hands of variously myself and other family members in the past decade and a bit and none have ever given trouble or had more than a day off the road. Cracking cars, every one.

And the whole idea behind the Seat brand, since its takeover by Volkswagen in the late eighties, is a belter. VW sought to create a Spanish Alfa Romeo, a sporting brand full of passion and brio, but with the promise of the solidity of VW-derived engines and chassis underneath to allay any fears over reliability or quality.

On some Seat models, that all works fine. The Leon hatchback, especially in hot 260bhp Cupra form, is a cracking hot hatch and I have a major soft spot for the sharply styled Ibiza supermini. But the rest of the range is... well, not living up to the billing.

Take this, the Alhambra people carrier. Nothing wrong with it, when taken in isolation. It’s big, spacious, has seats for seven, it’s safe and I love the sliding rear doors, which give such good access to the rear cabin, especially in tight parking spaces.

It’s also well made, comfy and, with that excellent 2.0-litre TDI diesel engine (140bhp, 320Nm of torque) doing the shunting, it’s got decent performance and good fuel economy. In fact, with claimed economy of 5.6-litres per 100km comparing well with our observed economy of 6.0-litres per 100km, it must be one of the most consistently economical big cars going. That’s helped by standard-fit Stop-Start and the Alhambra, as tested in Reference specification, comes with seven airbags, ESP, electric child locks, front fog lights, electronic handbrake and climate control. Our test car also came with an optional €613 Lifestyle pack which includes 16” alloys, multi-function steering wheel, extra chrome bits and more. All of that for €38,743. Not bad.

Except... Well, there are a couple of quibbles. First off, let’s talk about price and spec. On the upside, the Alhambra is around €3,000 cheaper than the equivalent (and cirtually identical in every respect) Volkswagen Sharan, so that makes it something of a bargain. On the downside, who exactly is expected these days to pay the guts of €40k for a new car and find that such items as a leather steering wheel, parking sensors and Bluetooth phone connection are still on the options list? Come on Seat, look across the road at the competition from the likes of Kia and Hyundai and wake up and smell the coffee.

Meanwhile, there is a serious disconnect between the Alhambra in and of itself and the whole brand image that Seat wants to project. If Seat is supposed to be the sprawling VW Group’s sporty, youthful brand, why is it in the first place making an Alhambra at all? Surely such a big, practical car is more in the line of in-house rival Skoda? Why isn’t Seat making something more aimed at the family driver who still loves driving? Ford’s S-Max is an obvious rival in this sense; a seven-seater family hack that still has the sharp styling and equally sharp chassis that those of us who combine driving enthusiasm and the burden of kids crave.

Instead, the Alhambra majors on being comfy and spacious, but as a thing to drive, it’s a bit of a bus; lumbering awkwardly around corners and never, ever doing anything to engage the driver. The Alhambra also suffers from the same complaint we have of its Exeo saloon sister; the cabin is just too grey and too plain to give you even a tiny hint of the Spanish style that Seat is supposed to exude. Only at night, when it’s pleasantly lit with read and white backlighting, does the Alhambra’s cabin come to life.

As an individual vehicle, the Alhambra’s just fine. A big, spacious family hauler that’ll provide years of faithful, useful service. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But come one Seat, please start giving us more cars that live up to the marketing message.


Facts & Figures

Seat Alhambra 2.0 TDI 140 Reference
Price as tested: €38,743
Price range: €38,180 to €43,700
Capacity: 1,995cc
Power: 138bhp
Torque: 320Nm
Top speed: 215kmh
0-100kmh: 11.3sec
Economy: 5.6l-100km (50.4mpg)
CO2 emissions: 146g/km
Road Tax Band: C €302
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star adult: 96% adult, 80% child, 46% pedestrian, 71% safety assist