OK I'm six months down the line with a new car. Lot's happened since I wrote about the Mondeo - heart attack, redundancy, new company.
So when the last company I worked for went bust, the Turbo Diesel Mondeo Ghia CDi Estate disappeared pretty smartly back to the leasors.
I managed to borrow an old golf for 3 months, then checked my pennies to see if I could afford another Mondeo - no chance. The choices are smaller when it's not a company car so I thought I'd end up disappointed.
I still like estate cars - especially as our local council has decided only to collect rubbish every other week so our "tip runs" are getting more common. My choices were a second hand Focus, Astra, Mondeo or Vectra. Then I spotted the cheeky adverts about the Zafira & Meriva.
The Meriva looked small, but I went and checked one out - it should be called a Tardis! Would it be a let down form the Mondeo? I didn't think so. It looks roomy, versatile, flexible and fast enough.
So how to buy one. A Vauxhall Partner's discount from my daughter's employer and my GM card with a good woj of rebate points off the price, no questions asked. Down to £10k on the road! Some redundancy money paid the deposit and on top of all that, Vauxhall offered 3 years interest free payments!
Got one! A Meriva Life 1.7CDTi. I didn't even choose a colour - chose the first one in the pipeline with air con - no other added options. It arrived last December & I've done over 8k miles now.
What's it like? - A brilliant package - good looking & practical (like me. The passenger area is surprisingly roomy and the rear seats can be switched from 3 to 2 seater and moved backwards in the process. (I love gadgets)
There are full lap & diagonal seatbelts even for the centre rear passenger. It's very roomy in the back but you lose some boot space with the 2 seat option. The boot space is OK with rear seats in normal 3 seat position, and very good with the rear seats folded flat.
It's high - so it's easy to get in and out of, and you get a good view when driving (apart from bulky corner pillars on the front windscreen). The performance is OK - the engine was tight at first, now it's brisk & economical - better than 45 mpg on diesel. Bags of pull once the turbo cuts in. Even full up it's very nippy. You can cruise at 90 all day where it's legal.
The seats are hard, and the suspension is very hard over rough surfaces - speed bumps are a real pain - at over 20 mph your teeth rattle. The ventilation fan is quite noisy at higher than minimum setting, and the engine is not as quiet as the mondeo. Parking is easy since its quite short and not too wide.
Would I recommend it? Definitely yes, I am doing to everyone - it's a good little package.
More details
Value for Money
Features
Excellent
Fuel consumption
Excellent
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