I am thinking about buying a "54" Vaulhall Meriva 1.7 CDTi Diesel. Any thoughts ladies and gentlemen?
DangerMouse
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I have a 1.6 16v petrol Design. I'm generally very happy with it. It has excellent practicality bearing in mind its compact size. It was big enough for a family of four's three week holiday in France!
Slight niggles:
1) Forward visibility (as commented upon by What Car? magazine) is woeful around the A pillars. You end up leaning forward or back at junctions to make sure nothing is coming from the offside.
2) Clutch has become a little juddery in first when cold. Off to the dealer!
Whilst the 1.6 16v is not hugely quick, it has a reasonable amount of low rev torque. Making progress is not a problem. I'm getting 35-36mpg for a mixture of short / medium / long trips at fairly relaxed pace.
I considered the diesel too and probably would have opted for it had it not been for the very heavy premium. To be honest, I'm happy I didn't go for the 1.8 either. If the car can manage a loaded up trip to France, it's all I need.
Summary: a decent (though not totally perfect) car. If you do 15k plus a year, the diesel might be worth it. Otherwise I'd stick with the 1.6 16v.
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I had a 1.8 for a couple days a year or so ago, nice crisp and pretty gutsy engine, quite impressed, would consider buying one.
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My Dad brought a brand new Meriva September last year, hes very pleased with it, despite hes had to master the 'steptronic' gearbox & the fact there're a few rattles around the cabin.
Forward visability isnt too much of a problem with depite the 'A' pillar can be prodruding at times, but then i dont drive it!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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I had an brand new Astra with the 1.7cdti engine on thursday - seemed ok, if a little gutless. There wasn't really any turbo lag as there used to be with my rover - but it was nowhere near as quick. Can't remember whether the Meriva is bigger or smaller than the Astra - the Astra seemed huge, so a definite thumbs up from that point of view. Reasonable fun, but thirstier than I expected as well - though probably has something to do with my concrete right shoe. At least I get the Jag back tomorrow...
O
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Jaguar XJS V12 - comes with free personalised oil tanker.
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I have a 1.6 16v petrol Design.
I rented one of these a couple of weeks ago in Germany. The rental agent proudly said "100PS," so I thought it would be ok. Oh dear.
Slight niggles: 1) Forward visibility (as commented upon by What Car? magazine) is woeful around the A pillars.
You really are not kidding. It was decidedly dangerous in this department, especially on unfamiliar roads, and especially on roundabouts.
Whilst the 1.6 16v is not hugely quick, it has a reasonable amount of low rev torque.
No, it really doesn't. I didn't feel much happened below about 4000 revs and I found that annoying. Plus it was very noisy at speed; bear in mind I'm used to a diesel Peugeot Partner Combi, which isn't the quietest. The diesel should be much, much better, probably in all respects.
Making progress is nota problem. I'm getting 35-36mpg for a mixture of short / medium / long trips at fairly relaxed pace.
This came as a shock too. I'd expected much better for a modern car this size, but I reckon your figure is about right.
Overall I thought the car was ok if you could live with the blind spot at the front end, but the engine was it's biggest weakness. It really felt gutless, needed plenty of revs to get moving, and the "buzzy" noise at speed was awful. I'd have thought the diesel would be far better suited to a vehicle like this and should give similar performance.
It is very practical though, easy enough to drive (apart from that blind spot), and comfortable on long journeys (apart from the noise).
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