Vauxhall Zafira Tourer review

Behind the wheel reveals another big improvement brought by the Zafira Tourer: it is much better to drive than the old one. Even the standard model on 17-inch alloys does a surprisingly impressive job of softening the road surface.

The handling is not bad either though, with fair poise through corners and decent precision from far less rubbery steering. Vauxhall will even let you buy adaptive dampers, complete with Sport setting, if you want to make your Zafira Tourer even more agile. We wouldn’t bother though, given how good the regular one is.

Ignore the cheapo 1.8-litre entry engine and choose the pricier 1.4-litre turbo instead. It has the same power and doesn’t sound like it would be much fun, but the sweet and significantly torquier nature works surprisingly well. Of course, most Zafira Tourers will be diesels, and the familiar 2.0-litre CDTi is inoffensive: the standard one is a bit slow but Vauxhall’s now fixed that with the punchy 195bhp BiTurbo.