FREEWHEELING February, 2012
scotland . com
Classy Zafira has grown up nicely
FreewheelingScotland.com – Driving the way forward
VA UXH A LL ZAF ZA IT IS CERTAINLY A CASE of the good old days are here again at Vauxhall, with some really great products rolling off the company’s busy production lines. Models such as the small Corsa hatchback, the new British-built three and family-sized Astra and the business-like Insignia rep mobile, all did their bit on the sales front last year, to help them into third, fifth and sixth place respectively in the 2011 UK league table. That was enough to help the Luton-based company put nearly a quarter of a million new cars onto our roads last year. Impressive figures indeed, considering how difficult times have been for most car makers. New for 2012 comes yet another stonker to sport the
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famous Griffin badge in the form of the brand new Zafira Tourer. Not a direct replacement for the standard Zafira, but one which will sit alongside it in dealer showrooms, this newcomer is longer, wider and taller in order to offer more comfort and allround room for those sitting in any of the car’s seven seats. And it’s not just your typical static two-three-two seating formation, for Vauxhall have
given some models seven individual seats, with the middle row of three capable of being positioned into an endless permatation to suit any eventuality. As expected they slide back and forwards, but the clever bit is that the outer seats can also
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VA UXH A LL ZA FIR A T move sidewards while the middle seat can split and fold up to convert into armrests, thus creating seating that would not be out of place in the business section of any flagship airline. The third row of seats fold from under the floor of the boot, and while they are easier than most other competitor’s offerings to access, most of the time they will be used by kids or kept under wraps for those very odd occasions. I had the chance to put both the 138bhp 1.4-litre turbo petrol and 162-brake two-litre CDTi diesel Tourer through their paces along a mix of twisting, undulating back roads, fast motorway sections and busy city traffic and found it hard to make a decision as to which would be my vehicle of choice. The petrol model in SRi trim felt a bit more at home on the twistier sections and gave a false
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impression it could leave the oilburner trailing in its wake, but while it costs around £2000 less than its similar-specification diesel stablemate to put on the road, figures show that its 44mpg consumption is no match for the 54mpg offered by the diesel. Another consideration would have to be how the car would perform when fully loaded. With a maximum of 200Nm of torque on tap, the petrol would be hard pressed against the 350Nm pumped out by the diesel. However, a two-litre Ecoflex diesel engine will also be available, and on paper, it looks like the one to go for thanks to its low 119g/km emissions and fantastic combined fuel economy figure of nearly 63mpg. For the UK market, Vauxhall have fine-tuned the Zafira Tourer’s steering to give the driver more feedback. There’s also the option to add Vauxhall’s
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T OURER FlexRide chassis technology to the package. This three-mode adjustable system automatically takes into consideration prevailing road conditions, cornering speed, vehicle movements and individual driving style to provide maximum stability. On the style front, Vauxhall have done a pretty good job, turning a large practical people carrier into a bit of a looker, with dozes of flair thanks to the use of an amalgum of design cues already seen on the sporty three-door Astra Coupe and soon-to-be-launched Ampera electric hybrid. Inside, the cabin oozes quality. Beautifully put together, the softfeel plastics, deep pile carpets and well laid out switchgear make the Tourer a more than pleasant place to be. With nearly half a million Zafiras already sold in the UK over the past decade or so, there’s no doubt this “super-stretched” version can only add to the model’s overall success.
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VAUXHALL ZAFIRA TOURER SE START/STOP PRICE: £24,005. MECHANICAL: 1364cc, 138bhp petrol engine, driving front wheels through six-speed manual gearbox. TOP SPEED: 126mph. 0-62MPH: 9.9 seconds. CONSUMPTION: Combined 44.8mpg. EMISSIONS: 148g/km. WARRANTY: Lifetime/100,000 miles.
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