New Vauxhall Agila review

The new Vauxhall Agila is all about trendy exterior looks, new paintwork colours, funky interior styling with bright colours and the practical packaging of interior space with lots of storage pods.

Vauxhall has gone to town to impress with the design and to create a cult status as experienced by MINI and Fiat 500 owners.

Practicality

Inside the new tall five-door body with a wheel at each corner configuration there is over 1,000 litres of load space with the rear seats folded down, a high volume for such a compact car. With the rear seats in place there are still 225-litres of boot space.

It will seat five at a squeeze and those in the front can even have height adjustable seats on all but the base model if they wish. The waistline is low and the windows large so visibility is pretty good to the front and side but the rear corners need watching. The tailgate is very wide so loading of bags is easy; just watch your head on the low height tailgate though.

The standard Expression specification includes four airbags, anti-lock braking, electronic immobiliser, stereo radio and CD player, speed sensitive power steering, tinted glass and 14-inch steel wheels.

Handling and ride

Club models have additional items such as electrically operated front windows and door mirrors, 15-inch steel wheels, a 60/40 split folding rear seat and a Dual/Floor luggage compartment. Design models have additional items such as air conditioning, alloy road wheels and leather bound steering wheel.

A completely new MacPherson strut and A-frame front suspension is matched with a torsion beam sprung rear axle so the Agila offers a fair degree of ride comfort and it handles safely, if not sharply. An electronic stability programme is available only as a £400 option on all models. Sorry Vauxhall this should be a standard fit item.

Their argument is that Agila is primarily a city-car used in slow moving town traffic. My view is that a responsible manufacturer cannot make that assumption and young users, some with children, will be using this car to travel from the country into towns and cities in all weathers. The Agila is expensive enough so it should include this safety function.

The streets of Cheltenham Spa lined with fashionable shops and restaurants proved no obstacle for the compact Agila and it turned a few heads of ‘ladies-who-lunch’ as we sat in traffic in our brightly coloured test cars.

On the open through the hilly Forest of Dean the 1.0i and 1.2i litre petrol units were willing enough but needed to be pushed hard to keep the car moving at a reasonable pace. You cannot afford to let the revs die otherwise going up hills was a struggle at times.

The steering was light, brakes good but most surprising was the ride comfort and this car’s ability to absorb all but the most severe of bumps and potholes.

Engines

Without doubt the star engine in the line-up is the 1.3-litre CDTi turbodiesl. I know it costs £1,600 more than the 1.2-litre petrol unit but the annual road tax from 1 April is only £35 compared to the £120 for 1.2-litre petrol unit.

The diesel motor will be free from the London Congestion Charge as well from October so it will be financially user-friendly for commuters or residents.

The official average fuel economy is also better at 62.8mpg over the 51.4mpg of the 1.2-litre petrol unit, but it is the vastly better driveability and performance it gives to the new five-door Agila that really impresses.

Sure if you only want the Agila just to run a few miles to and from town each day by all means go for the 1.0-litre petrol engine, but don’t expect to get anywhere in a hurry and steer clear of steep hills. The 1.2-litre petrol engine is marginally better and some longer journeys, but not too long, can be undertaken. However the best option of all is the diesel power unit.

Whilst it has marginally less power at 75PS than the 86PS 1.2-litre petrol engine, it has far more torque at 190Nm from just 1,750rpm. The extra weight of this engine also improves the handling of the car. It is more stable at higher speeds and it is better during cornering with more front wheel grip. It makes using the Agila for long motorway journeys a very real possibility.

The noise levels are low, the driving responses are much sharper and it is really nice to drive in town, in the country or on open roads. Just having that better handling, driving refinement and more power for hills and motorways made the car more enjoyable.

Diesel option

I know Vauxhall only forecast 6 per cent of the 5,000 annual Agila sales in the UK will be diesel variants, but I know they have under-called this number. For a nicer driving and living-with experience the diesel Agila is the one to go for despite the facts that it costs more to buy the car and the price of diesel fuel over petrol is higher.

For interest during the pre-launch test driving last week, in all real-life motoring conditions, busy towns, country lanes and motorways, the 1.0-litre petrol engine returned 35.6mpg, the 1.2-litre petrol unit returned 46.2mpg and the 1.3-litre turbodiesel unit recorded 55.3mpg, so size matters.

The relatively high prices of the new Agila mean this car overlaps the with roomier five-door Vauxhall Corsa models which start at £10,150. The Meriva compact MPV range starts at £10,495 and the 1.3-litre CDTi diesel version prices start from £11,275. So even within Vauxhall’s own range the Agila faces stiff competition for sales.

MILESTONES

Vauxhall Agila 1.3 CDTi Design (best model)

Price: £11,195

Engine/transmission: 1.3-litre, turbodiesel 75PS, 190Nm of torque from 1,750rpm, 5-speed manual

Performance: 103mph, 0-62mph 13.9 seconds, 62.8mpg (55.2mpg actual), CO2 120g/km, VED £35

Insurance group: 4D

For: Good looks inside and out, modern packaging of user-friendly space, comfortable, compact, low running costs

Against: Petrol engines are slow and weak, diesel is much better for real-life use, expensive to buy over the Fiat Panda and Hyundai i10, diesel model is even more expensive to buy, all models prone to side wind gusting but diesel version handles the elements and British roads better.

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