Exclusiv 1.7 CDTi 16v (110ps) ecoFLEX 5dr Estate

Nice car, be careful MPG claims very far fetched!

I have had one of these now for approx 3 months and do mostly motorway driving for work, approx 70 miles a day and have covered about 5500 miles. I previously had an R reg BMW 318TDS.

To drive the car is nice, it is very comfortable not particularly exciting, but I don’t want exciting at 7.15 in the morning!! 6 speed is great and it is smooth changing through the gears though it does get a bit ‘stuck’ in third! It is not too bad low down so you don’t feel that people are climbing all over your back end! The frame of the vehicle is quite chunky though so beware of blind spots which hide things like bikes at roundabouts! The boot space is excellent and it comfortably covers a 200 mile journey for 2 adults and 2 children with ease. It doesn’t feel too cheap, the write-ups say the golf is a better interior but I’d say that the Sports tourer is more than adequate. You could always have more gadgets!!

The only downside and this is quite a major one is that my particular model (and one of the reasons I chose it) is in all the literature the MPG is stated to be about 62.8 combined and also the Vauxhall website may I add. The best I have got from a tank is about 55mpg’s but it is mostly around 50 with 80%+ on motorway driving in 6 speed on limited roads, so at about 1500 RPM’s max. I do follow the instructions to clear the diesel particulate filter at 2000RPM plus. This is quite disappointing considering my 14 year old modified BMW was about 45mpg and that was 5 speed and was very sluggish low down! I will continue to monitor and have put Mobil 1 engine oil and also premium grade diesel in the car recently and am trying to do everything possible to get a decent fuel economy out of it. But so far this is pretty disappointing. When I contacted Vauxhall about this they told me that it takes about 8000 miles to ‘break in’ a diesel engine and that 50mpg’s was ‘acceptable’. They also told me that they don’t conduct these tests and that they are conducted at 50 miles an hour on a rolling road, so nothing like real life! Who drives at 50 in 6 speed on a motorway!! I have committed to this car for 3 years as it is on a personal lease agreement and if it doesn’t get up to a required MPG my first impressions are that I wouldn’t get a Vauxhall again. It works out at getting on for £1000 difference in fuel over 45k miles between 50 and 60 mpg. There is a website called ARonline that basically says what I have said here that it is claimed at 62.8 but you only get around 50. I am sure over the life of owning this that a German car would be more efficient and achieve greater economies therefore off setting the higher cost of the car. I’d be inclined to lease some cars in the future and actually do some real driving in them to measure their efficiency…

Interested to see what other peoples experience is of owning a sports tourer.

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