Vauxhall Zafira Tourer BiTurbo review | New Release - Car News Feb 2014

16:44 Tuesday 05 May 2015

There's a depressing trend in advertising at the moment in which the modern 21st century male is consistently portrayed as a gurning, emasculated halfwit.

Every other advert on TV, it seems, features some gibbering man-baby being undermined by his wife or children due to his inability to function as a capable human being. The subtext is usually something along the lines of "Hahaha! Look how stupid my husband/dad is! Hahaha!!! Now buy this yoghurt."

The worst offender at the moment is that bloody awful advert in which some middle-aged, gurgling buffoon is castrated (not literally, you'll understand) by his obnoxious offspring for his inability to put ham and lettuce into a sandwich in the correct order.

"Mum puts the ham on first and the lettuce on second," the precocious little oik wails, while the simpering father figure grimly obliges by turning the sandwich upside down. Me? I'd have rammed a table knife into the child's gullet and to hell with the NSPCC.

But I digress.

Vauxhall Zafira Tourer BiTurbo review

The car of choice for this peculiar breed of modern man is, without a doubt, the people carrier. After all, you can get five children in one, they're relatively well-priced and they're easy to drive, so even Useless Dad can get behind the wheel without driving it into a motorway bridge. The only problem with people carriers is that they tend to be fairly dull and anaemic to both drive and behold. Which is where this, the Vauxhall Zafira Tourer BiTurbo comes in.

Pitched at the top of the Zafira Tourer range, the BiTurbo is fitted with the same twin-turbo 2.0-litre diesel engine you get in the BiTurbo versions of both the Insignia and the Astra. The engine produces 192bhp and 295lb-ft of torque, giving a 0-62mph time of 8.5 seconds and a top speed of 135mph.

The results are, in a word, impressive. Thanks to the twin-turbo setup there's very little lag and the engine is quick to respond, even at low speeds. One criticism we would have is that it never really feels that fast. Fair enough, Vauxhall doesn't pitch the Zafira Tourer BiTurbo as a performance model per se and, don't get us wrong, the car does feel brisk; however, you never really feel that characteristic kick up the backside that you do with the best performance diesels.

It's not the most refined engine in the world either. It feels clattery on start-up and becomes coarse at higher revs. Thankfully, everything settles down nicely at motorway speeds, making the Zafira Tourer BiTurbo a comfortable and competent long-distance cruiser.

Vauxhall Zafira Tourer BiTurbo review

One area in which we were pleasantly surprised is the in the BiTurbo's handling. With 192bhp going straight to the front wheels, we were expecting torque steer by the bucket load; however, foot-down, with your hands off the wheel, the BiTurbo feels impressively composed.

It's not too shabby through the corners either. Despite the car's tall sides there isn't too much body roll thanks to stiff suspension. The trade-off, of course, is that the ride can feel unsettled at low speeds over poor surfaces, although it does improve at higher speeds.

Inside, the BiTurbo offers the same practical seven-seat layout at the lesser models in the Zafira Tourer range. The middle row of seats is made up of three individual seats, all of which can be slid backwards and forwards independently, giving each passenger the option to select just how much legroom they want.

The middle seats fold forward to grant access to the two rearmost seats; however, be warned, the rear seats are for children only. Anybody of adult size with the requisite number of limbs is going to find it very cramped, regardless of how far the middle-seat passengers push their seat forward.

Vauxhall Zafira Tourer BiTurbo review

On the plus side, the middle and rear seats can be folded flat to create an almost van-like load bay. With the seats down the Zafira Tourer is cavernous -- a fairly enormous arm chair which I loaded into the back of our press car seemed to shrink as I hoisted it in, lost in the vast emptiness of the Zafira Tourer's load bay.

The cabin is pleasantly finished and all of the interior plastics feel relatively sturdy and robust. The SRI trim we had also comes with a decent list of standard kit, including sat-nav, cruise control, air-conditioning USB and aux-in connectivity, front and rear parking sensors and, best of all, a rear parking camera.

All of which brings us onto the price. The SRI model we had costs £27,690 which, despite making it the cheapest BiTurbo model in the Zafira Tourer range, is still a lot of money.

Vauxhall Zafira Tourer BiTurbo review

On the plus side, it should be relatively inexpensive to run. Vauxhall claims that the BiTurbo will return 50.4mpg on the combined cycle and although we averaged a fairly mediocre 35mpg-ish on our 400-mile test, we weren't exercising the most parsimonious of driving styles.

CO2 emissions of 149g/km mean that while the BiTurbo will be relatively cheap to tax for private buyers, company car buyers might be tempted to go further down the range to benefit from a lower BIK rating.

So, should you buy the Zafira Tourer BiTurbo? Well, that depends on what you want from your car. On the plus side, it's an enjoyable car to drive, it looks great, it comes with a decent amount of equipment and it boasts a very practical interior. On the other hand, for our money it's too expensive for what it is and buyers would be well advised to consider one of the cheaper and more economical diesels in the range.