.but interior niggles darken our mood.
Living with a car for a significant part of 10,000 miles you quickly get to notice its good and bad points.
My favourite bit of the Zafira is still the optional four-pane sunroof with matching electric sliding sunscreens. I reckon the aircraft-style overhead lockers that go with them would be a boon, too, if the rear occupants were a little taller – my one and three-year olds seem to like the idea of them now but just can’t reach them [1].
I’d definitely choose this £800 option for three reasons: its novelty (the screens are fun to open and close, and silence the kids in the process), practicality (you get a lot more light on grey days when open and they keep the sun out successfully on bright ones) and style (the ‘corrugated-look’ tinted glass option covers the whole roof on the exterior and adds interest and dynamism to an otherwise average car shape).
There should be an upside in RV cash terms, too, with this option expected to hold on to half (£400) of its value come resale time according to Glass’s Jeff Paterson. Not bad at all.
The engine’s low CO2 (167g/km) and reasonable real-world city-based economy (running at 33.3mpg at last count vs the 36.2 official urban) is fine and the fold-flat third row seven seats are still very flexible.
But on the downside, the interior’s swathes of dull grey plastic and patchy quality are beginning to grate. Unless kept immaculate – hard to do with a people mover that actually moves a lot of people regularly – the light to mid-grey surfaces look dull and dowdy. A few items have come loose too – the driver’s armrest surround for one. When in the ‘down position’ this armrest also has a habit of getting jammed under the aircraft-style handbrake [2] if you move the front seats forward to change the configuration of the rear ones. It feels flimsy and not something you’d want to rest your arm on.
Another piece that has fallen off is the driver’s seatbelt base cover at the apex of the seatback and seat base. It does sort of clip back into place but looks far from firm.
Lastly, the vision around the A-pillar [3] is dreadful. At almost 13cm x 6cm deep plus the obstruction of an extra 9cm frame round the quarterlight window, you really do have to look carefully around that area to avoid trouble.
With a first service due shortly, a good check-over and clean-up should help.
