Vauxhall Meriva 1.4T SE

The last Vauxhall Meriva was a charmless, if effective, little box. The new one looks great, but is there more substance to it than those rear suicide doors?

Is this the first mini MPV that you’re not embarrassed to be seen in?

Could well be. We thought that Kia’s Venga (or at least the show car that previewed it) was pretty stylish, but the new Meriva beats it hollow. Most of the GM family styling cues are present - expensive-looking chrome grille, side blade cut into the flanks.

But the Meriva has its own identity thanks to that crooked window line that adds drama and allows kids to see out. The cabin features a really low dashboard to make it feel airy and the material quality is excellent.

This is an MPV though – is the new 2010 Meriva useful enough?

Well it’s much bigger than the old Meriva for a start (246mm longer; although only 15mm in wheelbase). Despite being based on the Corsa supermini, the Meriva is actually only slightly smaller than a Renault Scenic, and it’s cars of that class that Vauxhall would rather you compare it to. There are still only room for five – no point in cannibalising Zafira sales.

The rear seat can be configured as a conventional three-person bench that can be slid backwards or forwards to alter the boot:cabin ratio. Or you can fold the central seat down and push the outer chairs inwards, giving more head and shoulder room when only carrying two.

The back seats fold pretty much flat into the floor for carrying big loads and if you’re prepared to stack to the roof there’s 1500 litres of room at your disposal. All of this folding and sliding is very straightforward.

You can tell that Vauxhall really researched what families need when designing this car – the door bins swallow large bottles of water and because every car has an electric handbrake, there’s loads of storage space in the central tunnel where Vauxhall has installed the ‘Flexrail’, a two-tier storage system running on tracks.