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VAUXHALL VIVARO
Page 58
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Our test subject may have been accidentprone, but that doesn't detract from the long list of its strengths, says Colin Barnett.
') ur year of living with our longterm test Vauxhall Vivaro has reached its end, and it turned out to be quite an eventful year. Although it spent a fair bit of time off the road, much of it was due to circumstances beyond Vauxhall's control.
For some reason, the Vivaro attracted more than its share of accidental damage—more indeed than all of our long-term vans in the past five years combined. By the far the worst was an incident when an attempted manoeuvre to pass a stationary recovery vehicle saw the nearside door window frame gouged front and rear but, miraculously, the glass and adjacent panels remained undamaged. Other mishaps included a dented front bumper end and a cracked fog lamp lens. Fortunately, the repairs left the metallic green paintwork once again looking pristine.
Mechanically, all was not quite perfect. Quite early on, a cracked injector pipe took the van off the road briefly. This proved an educational experience as our nearest Vauxhall car dealer offered to look at it in I° days' time, while the Daf truck and Vauxhall van arm of the same dealer agreed that the workshop foreman would look at it immediately. Having done so at 5pm on a Friday afternoon, he arranged a lift home and had the parts delivered and the job done by the middle of Saturday morning.
The next problem was rather more inconvenient, as a problem with the EGR system saw it effectively stuck in Bath for a few days, with the journey completed by hire car. The only other glitch was a randomly-occurring problem which saw the air bag and 'service due' warning lights come on for no apparent rea
son, staying on until the engine was restarted.
All of these relatively minor setbacks did little to dampen our pleasure of the overall experience of Vivaro ownership. We didn't do enough mileage to earn an entry in the service record, sending it back 3,000 miles shy of the 20,000-mile first service. Performance and fuel economy steadily improved over the year, with an overall consumption figure in the mid-thirties despite much of its time spent either in town or hammering along motorways at the limit.
On our final fuel check under test conditions, the Vivaro ably demonstrated the improvements in fuel economy that come with miles, recording excellent results of 39.rmpg laden and 43.7mpg unladen. Build quality proved exemplary, with nothing falling off, rattling or otherwise letting Vauxhall down. As we said in a previous report, the only way that the Vivaro showed its usage was in the ease with which the light-coloured plastics got grubby, but fortunately they were just as easy to restore to cleanliness.
All of this, though, is secondary to the Vivards real strength. Everyone who drove it for the first time came back enthused by its quality. Those of us who drove it for longer are convinced that no other van in this class offers the same combination of comfort, performance, refinement, handling and economy. And there's quite a bit of room in the back as well.