Faults:

Had a flat tyre. Pulled over to the side of the road, went to get spare to find there is no spare it - comes with a compressor in the side compartment with a bottle of Tyre Weld. Not much use. No spare as this is a extra to buy when getting the car. Found that the tyre had ripped the side wall and was useless. Being a member of RAC, they came out and took it to the local tyre dealer and had it replaced.

Alternator went in the first four weeks; was replaced under warranty.

General Comments:

I have done over 40.000 miles in a year, and apart from the alternator going in the first 4 weeks of having it, it has gone fine without a hitch.

The servicing is every 20.000 miles, so it's cheap to run, and on average I am getting 43.4 miles to the gallon; pity it cannot be run on Bio Diesel.

Faults:

Only had one fault in all the time I've had it. The cat failed at 55k, and Vauxhall Motors GB say they do not have one in the UK! This Just In Time glitch has put my fantastic car off the road for an unknown period!

General Comments:

A brilliantly configured vehicle.

Comfortable seating for five adequately.

Faults:

Broken armrest; still to be repaired by the dealer.

Misting over rear indicator lens; to also be replaced by the dealer

General Comments:

Early days, but no running problems.

Before buying I read a few reviews that complained about road noise intruding into the cabin. The 1.8 SRI with the XP pack has ultra-low 225 x 40/18 tyres, and is very quiet at motorway speeds. I've had both the Fiat Ulysse and a Peugeot 806, and I wouldn't rate either of the two as high as the Zafira.

The fact that the back two seats slip conveniently into the floorplan is an excellent idea (saves you lifting the spare seats out and putting them in a garage for later reinstallation)

Faults:

With the Zafira we have a clonk noise when auto gear changes from 1 to 2 which is apparently a zafira automatic characteristic, is supposedly the ABS system checking itself!

General Comments:

Great having 7 seats, but dealer service nowhere near as good as Nissan dealer, wished we stuck with Nissan.

Faults:

The car has an intermittent fault with the coil packs, and will just stall randomly at low speeds.

This happens once a month or so, and the dealer is dragging their heels over fixing it until it breaks so the car won't move!

The timing chain also seems very noisy, I suspect the tensioner is faulty. Again, the dealer is reluctant to investigate.

Other than that, everything has been fine. I just need to find a better dealer.

General Comments:

We're very lucky with our Zafira. As well as all the normal features of the Design model we have: Sport button (improves throttle and steering response), heated seats, full leather, passenger seat height/tilt/lumbar adjustment, climate control (with full size hi-res screen for the controls) and driver's armrest.

All it's missing to take it to the "Elite" spec (like the Astra version) would be the electric folding mirrors.

One feature that is missing that I'd like is the colour sat-nav (partly to get the built-in MP3 compatibility and upgraded speakers), but other than that, we're very pleased with the spec.

We don't use the back 2 (of 7) seats very often (probably twice in 6 months), but appreciate the big boot, high seating position (great view out back for our toddler) and general cabin space.

Comfort is good, although the seats are a little flat for my liking. The convenience features are very nice and help make it a pleasant place to spend time, especially when doing family things, like going to the beach or safari park. In fact, this car is so perfect for cruising round safari parks with the kids glued to the windows, it should be called a Zafari!

Performance is OK from the 2.2 engine. Obviously the old tech 4 speed auto saps power quite a bit, but in general the get up and go is acceptable. Only when trying to power up steep slip roads and the like does the lack of true grunt really show. For overtaking and regular motorway work, it's just about OK.

Economy is reasonable. We get about 30mpg in mixed driving, with nearer 35mpg on long motorway runs. That's with the air-con always turned on (climate system) and some heavy right foot usage!

Being so tall and heavy, this isn't a car for track days, but it's better handling than you might think. Good for a MPV, average for cars overall.

My one real complaint about this car is visibility, the A-pillar is so thick that whole cars disappear from view round sharp bends and roundabouts. Very dangerous. I understand the need for a strong chassis in one-box cars like this (see old shape Zafira crash results), but manufacturers need to innovate more to solve this problem of 6" thick pillars exactly where you need to see to give way! Simply adding more metal seems like lazy engineering.

One minor complaint: there's not enough storage or cup holders in the front of the car. Poor for a MPV really.

One last thing: indicators. I love the new style Vauxhall one-touch column stalks. Seriously. When I drive other cars without them now, the old style stalks seem so old-fashioned and clunky.

Yes, it does take a bit of getting used to, but when you get the hang of it, it just seems right somehow. Like this is how it always should have been done, although I know few agree with me!! :)

Overall, I like the car. In an ideal world I'd like the SAAB derived 2.0 turbo with a DSG Volkswagen style gearbox, but until Vauxhall do such a thing, this Zafira will do just fine.