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Vauxhall Vhoaro
Page 48
Page 49
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in by Cohn Barnett Our long-term Vauxhall Vivaro has now pass the 10,000-mile marker (halfway to its first si vice) and is loosening up nicely, thank you vl much. Never short of willing urge when new, performance now is even better. One quite th uphill bend on our daily commute home from I CM office used to need third gear but is now (IL easily negotiated one ratio higher up the s speed box. If anything, it has also become quit and its noise levels from a cold start continue amaze—the starter motor is noticeably low than the stone-cold engine. Laden fuel econo has improved by a couple of mpg to 33.Bmpg.
However, we can only rate reliability at 9P, Soon after we wrote in our previous update ti the Vivaro was producing a slight smell of die it turned into a fairly major one, accompanied a generous helping of smoke. The problem gave a chance to sample Vauxhall's service wh turned out to be a mixed experience.
Injector pipe
A call to the nearest Vauxhall car and light 1 dealer elicited an offer to take a look at it ir days' time—clearly not a satisfactory situat had we been depending on the van to earn keep. However, a call to Stephens Oaf (a Va uxl heavy van specialist despite the namel of Craw was more productive: "Bring it straight in and foreman will look at it now." We did; he did, an replacement for the injector pipe with the hE line crack was ordered for next day.
A lift home was arranged and a call receive( 10:00hrs next morning that it was ready for ( lection. More like the sort of service that ' users expect and should receive. In fairness Vauxhall, it's aware of its shortcomings an restructuring the van dealer network so vans only handled by van specialists.
The intermittent spurious dash warning Ii has disappeared, but a few minor hiccups rem The hazard warning light switch somi tir refuses to work unless it's pushed to
diside and, after a restart following a I journey, the engine revs sown
pv a reluctance to drop. o, it's possible to beat the rth gear synchromesh h a particularly hamted change, but in normal ving it's not apparent. The Vivaro's biggest claim fame was taking part in , 2.8-tonne van group ( CM 8-14 August) when
• panel of invited testers inimously gave the top 'dirt to the Vauxhall (to ir surprise, it must be said). Their views matched ise of everyone who's driven it so far: whether ierienced van drivers or car drivers looking for ne spacious transport for a weekend, no-one has Hied back the keys without fulsome praise. The TI quality and equipment levels are a match for St cars, the performance is quite capable of iping up with any traffic conditions and the chasbehaviour holds no fears for even the most neris of novice van users. The optional satellite naviion is a particularly valued bit of kit.
gothing's perfect, though, and pressed to come up h some dislikes, the difficult (but not impossible) iss-cab access hindered by the dashunted gear lever pedestal tops a very irt list. The light coloured interior 11 tends to attract dirt, although tunately its a doddle to clean, problem tern is the vulnera bility of the low-mounted fog lamp lenses to stone damage—obviously not just down to us, as our sister magazine Truck & Driver suffered the same fate with its example.
In fact the only cloud on our horizon, as we enter the second half of our tenure of the Vivaro, is the prospect of having to hand it back.