Faults:

Engine oil consumption is very high.

General Comments:

The car is a great concept with all the versatile seating positions.

However the diesel engine lacks any response and the engine oil consumption is unacceptable.

Faults:

Loose trim panel on left B pillar.

General Comments:

Performance is particularly good; economy on runs is also good, but compromised by the roads in SE England where we live because so many junctions are present and thus there's a lot of stop/ start driving.

Handling is surprisingly good; I'm still pleased by the car's roadholding.

I'm concerned about the worse-than-expected NCAP test result; the Astra received four stars, but the Zafira, using the same chassis, received only three. The lap strap in the rear central seat is no longer acceptable in a family car, but with only three of us it's not necessary. However, primary safety - the tools needed to avoid an accident if you can - are well provided for; ABS, traction control, and a Porsche-designed chassis. Yup - GM used Porsche's R&D department to design this car. 3/4 of Porsche's staff design thid-party cars and not their own performance cars. Maybe this is why the chassis is so good.

As a family with a special needs child, the car is ideal - the doors open wide, the boot is large, with a rear hatch that drops nearly vertically, unlike the Picasso or Scenic.

I recommend installation of the Vauxhall-Fix child seats. These improve on Isofix by using two small seat belt buckles on the rear seat outer seats that clip into a subframe on the Vauxhall-Fix child seat, locking the child seat to the car's rear seat. The child seat's own harness then only needs to hold the child, for smaller children; toddlers up to age 5 are held by an additional pad that is held by the adult belt. The system is very secure in operation; the seat cannot be moved laterally once fixed. This is an excellent design - I've only seen a better system on Volvos.

The auto transmission is very quiet, as is the engine (I recommend that you replace the oil at 2000 miles with a synthetic).

Oh, and I have a few options that would have boosted the price to over £18500 in the UK: cruise control, darkended rear windows which are useful in Sussex in the summer heat, cargo nets etc. I paid only circa £14K by importing from Holland myself; I bought the car with Vauxhall trims, which really winds the UK dealers up. The only Opel designation is on the engine head!!

Faults:

None.

General Comments:

After a long research on all types of estates, which is the type of car we need at this stage, the Zafira captured all our wants and more. So far it has behaved impeccably. moreover the dealers 'Welch of Newport' in South Wales are quite superb in their service, nothing was too much trouble.

The performance of this vehicle was very much up to my expectations, the 1.8 was definitely the right choice. I felt the 1.6 would be hard pressed to cope with a full load ie. 2 adults, 3 teenagers and a labrador!.

Although still 'running in', I'm averaging 35mpg of mixed motoring, this is a great improvement over the Senator's 23mpg. Having said that it was beginning to show its 10 years of age, but it was a super car all the same!