Vauxhall Meriva 1.3 CDTi Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Vauxhall Meriva 1.3 CDTi
Prices: £11,275-£14,730 – on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 3-5
Emissions: 119g/km
Performance: 0-60mph 13.5s / Max Speed 102mph
Fuel Consumption: (combined) 64mpg
Safety: Twin front airbags, ABS with EBD
Dimensions: Length/Width/Height mm 4042/1694/1624

CHEAP, CHUNKY AND CHEERFUL

Our Rating: 7.1 / 10

With A Sweet 1.3-Litre Diesel Engine, Vauxhall’s Revised Meriva Offers A Welcome Alternative To A Supermini. Andy Enright Drives It…

Predicting how a car will turn out so often proves a fool’s errand. High hopes often lead to crashing disappointments and just occasionally a gem will turn up when you were expecting very little. Vauxhall’s Meriva has been with us a while now and the launch of a facelifted version also saw the introduction of a 1.3 CDTi diesel engine slotted into this supermini-MPV’s snub nose. It’s not a car that promises a whole lot but it delivers plenty.

The facelift is moderately successful. Attempting to graft the sleek front end of an Astra onto a model that more closely resembles the shape of a Maris Piper was always going to be a big ask and to be honest, the old model has a cleaner, more cohesive look. Elsewhere the update is more successful, especially at the rear end where the darkened high-mounted tail lights serve to give a widening effect to the rear window. A chrome strip across the rear also acts as a neat detail and has the added benefit of providing a rude retaliation to anybody following with main beam lights on.

The interior has been tweaked in a few key areas as well with a wider selection of trims, some rather unconvincing carbon-fibre effect inlays on the instrument panel and doors, and a welcome splash of chrome on the dials, door pulls, hand brake lever and gear shifter. New instrument graphics are also introduced. The fascia is still generically Vauxhall with excellent build quality but not a whole lot in the way of slick design. Everything works and works well but aesthetes will prefer to shop elsewhere.

That said, the Meriva is a car that typical buyers will put to work rather than keep as a show pony. That’s why the interior fittings are chunky and hardwearing, Vauxhall realising that the rear seat target audience can reduce flimsy fitments to plastic shrapnel in minutes. The seating system is far easier to figure than that of the Meriva’s big brother, the Zafira, and no less ingenious. Instead of being a dumbed down version of the Flex7 system featured in the larger car, the Meriva’s FlexSpace arrangement offers a quick and easy switch between one, two, three, four and five seats. The five to four seat quick change routine is especially impressive. Fold the centre seat forward, pull a lever on the front of one of the outer berths and you’ll be able to slide the seat back and inwards, offering at the same time more elbow and legroom for four occupants. I must admit to a snort of ridicule

The big draw in this instance, however, is that ingenious 1.3-litre diesel engine. Even when testing this Meriva back to back with its 1.6-litre TWINPORT and 180bhp VXR siblings, this was the engine that stood out as The One To Choose. Why? It’s just the most useable of the bunch. Whereas the 1.6-litre lump adds more power and increases its economy figure, it’s still only good for an average of 42.5mpg which in this rarefied class, isn’t actually that great. Opt instead for the diesel and you get superior torque plus far better fuel economy at 57mpg. The 98mph top speed isn’t anything to write home about but the refinement certainly is. The 1.3-litre CDTi engine is derived from a General Motors/Fiat Multijet design. The Multijet system takes the idea of pilot injection – squirting a small amount of fuel into the cylinder to ‘prime’ the combustion chamber for the main ignition process – and refines it still further. In this instance, the main injection is divided into a series of smaller injections, allowing smoother, more gradual combustion that utilises fuel more efficiently. The electronic control units, therefore, have to be astonishingly precise. Whereas with a more conventional Unijet system the time lag between injections was a relatively yawning 1,500 microseconds, the response time has been slashed by a factor of 10.

A variable geometry turbocharger and a rise in the pressure of the direct injection system have raised the power available to 70bhp for the 1.3-litre we look at here. As you’d expect, this engine complies with stringent EURO4 emissions regulations: that means three per cent knocked off benefit-in-kind taxation for company users.

The Meriva itself is based on a Corsa platform, making it a good deal smaller than a Zafira, which rides on Astra mechanicals. At 4,042mm in total length, its still a tad shorter than an Astra but, with its wheel at each corner stance and it’s high roofline, the General Motors designers responsible for the Meriva hav