1.6

Buy this is you don’t like driving

I don’t know where to start with this car. The inside had a very high sit up and beg steering position. The gear level is a mile long and changing into first third or fifth meant leaning forward - and only a 5 speed gearbox in 2018. I haven’t seen a gearbox like this since the 70s. There’s a very funky touchscreen which works well and appears to be where all the development efforts went. The seats are ok but the headrests are needlessly hard. The clutch is light but the pay off is a rediculously long travel.
Once on the road the steering is light. Too light and with little feel and poor self centring on tight corners leading to lots of wheel twirling to avoid crossing the road. The turbo Diesel engine is gutless off boost (about 2000 rpm) so you tend to drive in lower gears to have some measure of throttle response, totally ruining the efficiency of having a diesel in the first place. How Vauxhall managed to produce a Diesel engine with so little torque is a minor miracle of poor design. Around town you are frequently in second gear as if you come of boost in third you become a slowly moving road block and the cruise control doesn’t turn on until 30 mph meaning you spend half your time looking at the speedo in town instead of outside. On the motorway if you slow to 50 or 60 for traffic you then have to change down again to get any discernible acceleration to 70. When you get on to country roads the vague steering doesn’t inspire confidence and the neurotic lane departure warning has to be turned off every time you get near the white line on the narrow roads.
Overall. Pros. The technology/Satnav/phone integration.
Cons: pretty much everything else.

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