Vauxhall Viva Rocks (2017 – 2019) Review

The Vauxhall Viva Rocks is a spin-off of the Viva city car, designed to compete with small pseudo-crossovers like the Suzuki Ignis and Fiat Panda, as well as conventional city cars such as the Toyota Aygo and Hyundai i10. The emphasis is very much on the ‘pseudo’ too; other than raised ride height and plastic body cladding there’s nothing about the Viva Rocks that improves its ability off-road. It’s still a city car at heart, undemanding to drive and cheap to run, but there’s not a great deal to recommend it over key rivals or even the regular Viva.

If all you want in a car is something to get you from A to B, you're probably the buyer Vauxhall has in mind for its Viva city car. It's not glamorous, fast, well-equipped or even particularly practical. It's affordable, though, in terms of running costs and purchase price - and it's much better than getting the bus.

All of these reasons are why the average Viva buyer is aged over 50, probably a woman and likes things that are good value for money. But car brands can't resist any opportunity to attract a younger audience - which is why Vauxhall's given its sensible little Viva the SUV treatment.

No, the Vauxhall Viva Rocks isn't a proper SUV by any stretch of the imagination. It's not a four-wheel-drive and you could barely call it a crossover. The ride height's been raised by 18mm and extra body cladding has been fitted to prevent unsightly dents and scrapes should you venture into the wild. Or an Asda car park.

The interior isn't much different to the standard Viva. It's not as attractive as the Corsa or Adam's, but it's functional. There's no fancy large infotainment display in the centre of the dash, but there is a simple FM radio with Bluetooth.

Old-fashioned yet easy-to-reach dials let you adjust the temperature of the air conditioning, while a steering wheel poached from the Corsa feels surprisingly meaty and looks at odds with the rest of the cabin.

The Vauxhall Viva Rocks' boxy dimensions means there's a decent amount of headroom and fully-grown passengers can fit in the rear without too much grumpiness. It's quite narrow, though, meaning you might nudge shoulders with your passengers. It’s very much the typical city car in this respect, and while there’s more space than the Suzuki Ignis or Fiat Panda it’s not as spacious as some of the better city car offerings. 

A big positive for the Viva Rocks is that it is very easy to drive. The clutch is light and the five-speed manual gearbox is fine if not ultra precise - it’s easy enough that you could throw the keys to a learner and they’d have little trouble getting used to it. Visibility is good so darting in and out of spaces around town is a piece of cake, and it’s a breeze to park too.

Out of town, the 75PS engine requires working hard to get up to speed and doing so results in a lot of noise intruding into the cabin, which takes away from its versatility and puts it behind some of the better competition. Stick to the city and it’s in its element, but for many buyers of modern city cars a bit of ability out of town is an expectation.

The problem with the Viva Rocks is that, for the money, you could buy a much better equipped standard Viva.

The standard Viva rides well and that's true for the Viva Rocks, too. The extra 18mm of ride height might make it less crashy over potholes, but you'd be hard-pushed to tell the difference.

Fling it around corners and you'll sense a fair bit of body roll but, again, only marginally more than a standard Viva. The steering's light, which is an advantage when parking, but it provides little confidence at higher speeds. If you want to make the steering even lighter, there's a City button, but this seems little more than a gimmick.

 Few buyers will want to traipse across a muddy field in a small city car, but four-wheel-drive could help justify the higher purchase price over a standard Viva.

There's just one engine available - a 1.0-litre 73PS naturally-aspirated petrol unit paired with a five-speed manual gearbox. The result is adequate performance, but little more. Even around town it needs a few revs to get moving, but that's par for the course with low-powered city cars.

Once you've left suburbia and passed the national speed limit signs, the Viva takes a little effort to get up to speed. Hills require dropping down a gear and you'll have to cling onto revs if you want to reach the dizzy heights of 70mph.

It will get there, eventually, but wind and road noise will remind you that you're in a city car. We're probably being a trifle melodramatic here, but rivals such as the Hyundai i10 boast a big car feel that the Viva Rocks just doesn't have.

The Viva Rocks and its European equivalent, the Opel Karl Rocks, have not been tested separately by EuroNCAP, as they were deemed effectively identical to the regular version.

The Viva - or rather it’s European equivalent, the Opel Karl - has been tested twice by EuroNCAP; once in 2015 when the car was first launched, and again in 2017 - this was because the testing standards had changed significantly in the period, so that many cars on sale were retested.

As standard, all versions of the Viva are fitted with six airbags, including side and curtain airbags for both driver and passenger, seatbelt pre-tensioners and load-limiters, Isofix mounting points for the outer rear seats plus an airbag de-activation switch for the front passenger seat.

A further plus is that all Vivas are fitted with lane assist as well as cruise control and a speed limiter as standard, but there are no further safety systems on the options list.

Vauxhall do not quote any official towing figures for the Viva Rocks; given its low kerb weight and modest 1.0-litre engine it is far from an ideal towing vehicle and we’d recommend looking elsewhere if you need to tow.

The boot's not massive mind you, but it will carry your shopping or a few overnight bags if required and is on a par with much of the competition. T

here's a bit of a lip which can get in the way of loading heavy items, but at least the cladding of the Viva Rocks means you'll be less worried about causing scratches. Oh, and the rear seats drop should you need to carry bulkier items.

The Viva Rocks' interior feels a bit like a city car's interior of yesteryear. Buying a manufacturer's entry-level car used to mean you got cheap plastics, a basic but functional cabin and little in the way of pizzazz. But cars like the Volkswagen Up, Hyundai i10 and Toyota Aygo means buyers have higher expectations today.

The dashboard looks pretty drab and there's little money been spent making anything feel nice to touch. A few of the nicer aspects of the Viva Rocks' interior are clearly parts that have been nicked from other cars in Vauxhall's range. The gear lever, for example, will look familiar to anyone who's driven an Astra, while the slightly-too-large steering wheel is obviously from a Corsa.

The basic infotainment provision in the Rocks is what you will get on most examples on the market, and it really is quite basic.

You get a simple FM/AM radio with an AUX input and Bluetooth for telephone calls and streaming audio, but that’s it. As an option when new the Rocks could be fitted with the upgraded infotainment system, a 7-inch touchscreen with navigation, Bluetooth for phonecalls and audio streaming, a USB input and six speakers.

The Viva Rocks was discontinued in the UK in 2019, so even though it was something of a slow seller you’re unlikely to find any new or even pre-registered examples on dealer forecourts anymore.

However, at the newer end of the used scale there are some 2019 cars that have barely turned a wheel and will also enjoy some manufacturer warranty. A quick search of the classified ads turned up a number of examples, including a 2019 car with under 5000 miles on the clock for only £10,000.

As for the older and cheaper examples, they are still relatively young in comparative terms and are down around the £7000 mark. We found a 2018 car still with only 12,000 miles on the clock for £7000 exactly.

With just one version of the Viva Rocks to choose from there’s not much you can do to alter the fuel consumption.

In theory the Rocks will offer slightly worse fuel consumption than the regular Viva because of the increased ride height, although the difference may well be negligible.

With just the single version of the Rocks available there’s just a single insurance group too. Group 4 is very low indeed, and on a part with regular Vivas so you’re not paying extra for the joy of your semi-SUV. That means it’s still low enough for keen new drivers, and older drivers should find their premiums are blissfully low.

There are no decisions to be made when it comes to choosing a Viva Rocks. There’s no engine options to think about with just the single 1.0-litre unit available, and it’s also only available with a five-speed manual gearbox - the automated manual is only available on the standard Viva. 

There are no specification variations for the Viva Rocks either, and because it’s no longer on sale as a new car (the Rocks was discontinued in 2019) it’s important to check the specification of used examples. As standard the Rocks comes with the Viva’s SE-spec audio system, so it has Bluetooth but no touchscreen.

The more advanced system could be added in when new as an option for around £500, but few examples will have had this fitted unfortunately.