Opel Zafira Tourer offers practical style

The Opel Zafira Tourer’s flowing side lines and interesting looking lights save the MPV from the boxy look

If you hate the sight of a centre storage unit/armrest in a car simply because it always seems to be more of a hindrance than a help, then you’re in for a treat in the new Opel Zafira Tourer.

The 7-seater features a tiered storage unit which slides out of your way. At the top, there’s the traditional storage facility, the middle tier houses the chrome surround cup holders and there’s a third layer of storage below that.

From a five-seater to a seven-seater to a one-seater, the Opel Zafira Tourer can easily be configured to maximise either passenger or luggage space

At first glance, the family-friendly MPV looks like a large five-seater, but investigate the massive boot further and you find two more hidden seats.

Converting from a five-seater to a seven-seater is easy, simply pull up the rear seats and you’re ready to go.

As a five-seater, the Zafira Tourer has a massive boot, however, if you choose to use it as seven-seater you pretty much lose that luggage space all together.

The middle row is actually three individual seats and each can slide backwards and forwards, giving decent legroom as a five seater, however, with limited legroom in the back, the third row of seats is best reserved for the smallies.

All of the passenger seats can be lowered to create the maximum luggage space.

As you can probably guess from the tiered storage unit, the inside of the Opel Zafira Tourer is well designed and is quite stylish.

The model I was driving had a hard wearing leather interior, with red ambient lighting inside the cabin.

There’s oodles of storage space, from the recessed dash on the passenger side of the car, to the cubbies in the third row of seats.

There’s also a lovely ‘hidden’ media facility in the centre console, which houses the USB/SD ports as well as the lighter. There’s also space for a phone or an MP3 player.

The Opel Zafira Tourer has a stylish interior and I was particularly taken with the tiered centre storage between the front seats

The model I was driving was well spec’d with Bluetooth, auto wipers/lights, cruise control/speed limiter, a built in SatNav and heated seats.

It was also sunroof central, with a panorama windscreen and a separate sunroof over the back seat passengers.

To create the panorama windscreen, the ‘roof’ is pulled back to reveal more windscreen that stretches over the driver’s head. I was more impressed with this during night-time driving, as the sun visors move with the ‘roof’, thus doing nothing for glare on bright days.

The Zafira Tourer is a big car, but its exterior manages to avoid a boxy look because of the flowing lines at the sides and its striking-looking front lights.

While it’s certainly a sophisticated looking car, like most MPVs, the Zafira Tourer is not the most exciting to drive.

In saying that though, the six-speed manual 2.0l diesel test car was perfectly adequate. It was fast at the lights, was great cruising on the motorway and handled city traffic well. It also had the eco-efficient Stop/Start technology.

Overall, I found the Opel Zafira Tourer to be a versatile and hard-wearing MPV that will get you from A to B in style.

The Opel Zafira Tourer is available now, with prices starting from €28,495 for the entry level model. The top of the range Elite model I was driving costs from €35,995.

Tech Spec:
Engine: 2.0l CDTi 165ps (diesel)
Transmission: 6-speed manual
Acceleration: 0-100km/h in 9.8seconds
Top speed: 208km/h
Combined Fuel Consumption: 5.2l/100km
CO2 Emissions: 137g/km
Annual road tax: €225 (Band B)

Visit opel.ie for further information.