Vauxhall Grandland review

A quick reminder, then: the mild hybrid Grandland combines a 134bhp 1.2-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine with a 28bhp electric motor and teeny tiny battery.

The electric motor helps smooth out the stop/start procedure and assists the petrol engine under acceleration, but with very limited battery range it’s really only when crawling around town that you’re relying on electric power alone.

But it’s not a particularly exciting experience. Zero to 62mph takes 10.2 seconds, with the electric motor acting as a generator to charge the 48-volt battery when you slow down. It’s fine around town, but you kinda wish for a bit more power elsewhere.

Are there any drive modes to liven things up?

There are, a grand total of three in fact – Eco, Normal and Sport (quit your sniggering at the back) – which tailor the driving experience by altering the steering, braking and engine response. A little bit, anyway.

Reality is, you’ll likely drive it 99 per cent of the time in Normal mode, which is just fine, though Sport mode does at least increase the weight of the feather light steering, which offers absolutely no feel whatsoever.

But driving engagement isn’t the Grandland’s primary goal, and it’s not a car that ever encourages you to put your foot down. And anyway that wouldn’t be good for economy: Vauxhall claims 54.1mpg, and we saw around the fifties real world.

Is it comfortable to ride in?

It’s better than the previous Grandland at least, which was much maligned for its poor ride quality. Here it’s largely pretty comfortable, though it does at times feel slightly too firm and there’s an underlying fidget too, but nothing too bad.

The driving position is better too, and while we’d like more steering feel it generally sticks to the line you point the wheels in. Even at motorway speed it’s reasonably quiet and refined, with just a small amount of wind noise around the mirrors.

Does it get all those annoying driver assist systems?

Yep, as is EU law, speed limit warning and lane keep assist are standard and auto activate every time on start-up. Turning them off means pressing the shortcut button below the infotainment screen and deselecting both.

It also gets auto cruise control, traffic sign recognition and intelligent speed adaptation as standard, all of which we found worked largely well.

Upper spec models get Vauxhall’s Intelli-Drive 2.0 system, which integrates numerous wizardry including semi-automatic lane change assist and recommended speed adaptation, auto adjusting how fast you’re going according to speed limits.