Faults:
Trim misaligned inside the front passenger door - the dealer made one attempt to refit it, wasn't satisfied with the result, and eventually replaced it.
The turbo hose came off the inlet manifold - by all accounts, this is not an uncommon failing on this engine. It was fairly easy to repair, though why did Vauxhall hide it under a plastic cover held on with T-35 bolts? The AA patrol knew what was wrong before he even opened the bonnet.
The map reading lights failed - this was put down to a faulty courtesy light switch, but this happened a few hours after the courtesy light assembly was disturbed by fitting a mobile phone.
Two sillies at pre-delivery inspection. The 'service due indicator' hadn't been reset, and one mudflap wasn't fitted properly - both were fixed within a few minutes of me taking it back.
The dealer sticker in the rear window was fitted upside down :-) I got the dealer's valet to remove it - I would have removed it anyway.
General Comments:
The faults are minor annoyances; this is a great car and I'm delighted with it. I'm getting around 43 miles to the gallon average, and up to 50 miles to the gallon on long trips, which I'm impressed with.
The big bonus for me is that it takes a wheelchair in the boot standing up. It's flexible and swallows fairly big loads with several passengers.
My car has the Technical Pack (cruise control and trip computer) - the cruise control is a boon on long journeys.
The 2.0Di engine does use some oil - owners should check the dipstick periodically. I've got through 3 litres so far - the oil consumption has gone down significantly in the last 1000 miles.
Apart from the faults already noted, the only criticism I have of the car is that the paint seems to be rather fragile; whether this is typical of water based pearlescent paint, I don't know. I've picked up rather too many scratches for my liking.
Overall, I have described this car in terms of "If you gave me the money to buy any car on the market, I'd buy this one again". This is still true - my Zafira has been a wonderful car so far.
11th Dec 2000, 07:20
This was my review - a brief update on 11 December 2000, 11,800 miles.
The car is still running well. First service at 10,000 miles was less than expected at around £105. The front wiper blades were replaced under warranty at the service as the rubbers had hardened.
The only fault was the boot lock button jamming earlier this week, caused by lack of lubrication in the mechanism. A local Vauxhall dealer sorted it in five minutes free of charge.
I did have a 70mph front left tyre failure, caused by a puncture rather than a problem with the tyre. The car behaved well and it was fairly easy to bring it to a halt safely.
The engine is still burning oil - it seems to be a tendency of the Vauxhall 2 litre direct injection diesel units to use some oil. I'm getting through about a litre every 3000 miles, which seems alarmingly high to people used to engines that use no oil, but it's well within Vauxhall's spec of using up to a litre every 1000 miles. This isn't a problem except that drivers of Vauxhall direct injection diesel engines must get into the habit of checking the oil level every 1000 miles or so.
Fuel economy remains great - I'm returning just under 44mpg (the official EU Combined figure is 42.8mpg).
I'm still delighted with the car. I think Vauxhall's decision to switch to the 2.0TDi engine (the roughly 100PS intercooled version of the engine - my 2.0Di is 81PS) is wise - it's more powerful with no fuel consumption penalty at all according to the EU Combined fuel figures. However, the 2.0Di is powerful enough for the car, feeling just a little sluggish at full load - it has plenty of torque.