Honey, His Legs Are In The Boot.

So, you have your beautiful family. The picture perfect kind. Each child excels at everything they do, and you are just so proud. You never miss a sports event, because you want them to know you’re there for them. But, being successful means your children are popular, and therefore have pretty big social circles…which means you are forever transporting their friends, too. So, how do you tell Jonny that Philip can come with as well, but because of a space problem, you are going to have to chop off his legs and stick them in the boot?

Well, put away those hacksaws, because I might very well have the solution. It’s called the Opel Vivaro, and I got to play taxi in it.
On the face of it, the Vivaro is a massive bus-thing, and to be brutally honest, I was slightly intimidated about leaving my post-box size car outside Auto House and driving away in the whole Post Office.

So, you open the driver’s door, and climb in – and for the first time in a long time, you will climb in, because you have to take at least two sizeable steps before you can hop onto the driver’s seat. The upside is an incredibly high and demanding driving position. You can see right around the front of the vehicle, which is pretty great.

On the inside you find three bench seats which can accommodate three people each, one in the front, middle and rear. I sat right in the back and can honestly say it felt like I was in a different time zone to the driver…there is so much flippin’ space inside.
On the gizmo front, there is the usual stuff. Electric windows for the driver and passenger, electric mirrors, satellite controls for the radio on the steering wheel, air-conditioning for both front and rear passengers and so on.

While driving the Vivaro, I was shocked to find that it isn’t much more difficult to manoeuvre than a double cab bakkie.
I found that in town the Vivaro lacked a bit of low down power, but it doesn’t take long to work your way round it. And once the turbo comes into play, it’s great. On the open road, if you keep the revs between the 2000 and 3000 range when the turbo is at its most effective, it is a treat to drive. And then came the biggest shock about the Vivaro. Sometimes I like to pick up a vehicle ‘blind’, when you don’t know a thing about the vehicle and try and work out what size engine it has and so on. Now in my mind I was playing with the idea that the Vivaro was about a 2.5 litre diesel, but only after I handed it back did I discover it was in fact a 1.9 liter diesel. The unit produces 74kW and 240Nm which doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the way it puts it down that is so astounding. The other plus point to a small diesel motor is great fuel economy, Opel claim a combined cycle of 7.7 litres per 100 kilometers.

So to keep the kids happy, tape Philip’s legs back on, and have a look at the Opel Vivaro.