EVERYONE'S switching to smaller motors at the moment, and now it seems even Daddy Cool has downsized.You might remember Daddy Cool as the star of a series of Vauxhall adverts from a couple of years ago, when an otherwise ordinary dad decides to demonstrate just how sporty his school run chariot can be by sticking some Boney M on the stereo and driving like his kids are late for school. It was fun at the time, but we live in an age of austerity now.
Daddy Cool's old Vauxhall Zafira GSI was a cracking people carrier but I reckon if he got revived in another slightly cheesy TV campaign he'd probably be driving the new Meriva, which in 1.4 Turbo form is probably the unlikeliest driving hit I've ever come across.
Whisper it quietly, but a car designed for the North Circular rather than the Nurburgring is an absolute joy to drive.
Vauxhall's second generation of the Meriva might be an upright MPV rather than a hot hatch but, particularly in the sporty Turbo spec, it has a manic sense of urgency, and is beautifully balanced on both the bumpy and the bendy bits of the school run.
It's also joined the select group of cars that have suicide rear doors, which sound dramatic but basically open backwards rather than forwards to make getting in a little easier. Mazda's RX-8 and the Rolls Phantom have pulled off the same trick in a bid to pull off spectacular rather than spacious, but on the Meriva it means you can get into an interior that feels very well screwed together a few seconds faster.
The Meriva's a small MPV and by definition not the sort of thing to set your pulse racing, but whoever made the Astra, Insignia and Tigra look so stylish has managed the same trick with what should be a be a boxy shopping wagon.
It's not the kind of car you want to warm to but the Meriva's magic stems from being a hugely practical and good looking little car which just happens to go like strink when you least expect it.
Daddy Cool, I reckon, would definitely approve.
As published in The Champion on July 21, 2010
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