So, in the Vauxhall range at the moment, if you want a 7 seater you have to go for one of these options. The Vauxhall Vivaro-e Life or the Vauxhall Combo-e Life. Today I am going to review the Vauxhall Vivaro-e Life.
Exterior – Front
So, lets start with the front. From a distance you can easily tell that this is a Vauxhall wit the unique LED headlights and the unique grill but below this, the bumper is exactly the same one you would find on the Citroen and Peugeot Vans on what this is based on. Whilst this is not a bad thing as I do quite like the style of it, I do wish Vauxhall could have made the van more unique by at least putting the LED day time running lights into the headlight. Also whilst this car does not have the Vauxhall Visor, the design makes it look like it does from far away which I do actually quite like.
Exterior – Side
Moving down the side, there is no surprise that it looks like a van with some rear side windows. Again this is to be expected and to be honest because it is based on a van you can get the most out of it which we will see later on. You do get some unique wheels that were taken from the pre facelift Grandland X and Insignia Country Tourer. Having this in this colour gives this van a uniqueness and personally I would buy it over a ford or a Volkswagen.
Exterior – Rear
Moving round the back, the design is pure Stellantis group. The only changes that you can see are the name plate badge and the griffin. Everything else is the same. To be honest though, I do quite like this design. Lets have a look at what battery and motor options you get
Car and engine specs and price
So for the Vivaro-e Life you get a 50 kWh battery pack that provides a 143 mile range it get a 136 bhp motor also. Now all of this may sound familiar. That is because that the battery pack and the motor is taken from the Vauxhall Corsa-e and Mokka-e. the price of the Vauxhall Vivaro-e Life starts at £35,795.
Interior – Design
So, climbing inside things start to go down hill very slightly. Now because it is based on a van you get the exact same interior as the van. Because of this there are some very cheap plastics that you would not expect to find on a £40,000 vehicle. A couple of changes that I would have liked is the same steering wheel as the rest of the Vauxhall range and the bigger infotainment screen. Talking of infotainment it is OK to use but like the other vehicles that have this system, it is not the best on the market. You do get some nice leather seats though which do make this MPV feel premium.
Practicality
So, with the Vivaro-e Life you can either get it in a 7 seater arrangement a 9 seater arrangement . With 7 seats the arrangement is like any other MPV. Space is very good because of its size and you can slide and recline the middle and rear rows. In the 9 seat arrangement all the rows have 3 seats. Again legroom and headroom is more than enough but it may be a squeeze on long journeys. You do get some creature comforts like a panoramic roof and some overhead storage. Also these sliding doors are very handy as it creates a big opening area in a little amount of space.
Boot Size
So boot space with all of the seats in use is 989 litres up to the window line and above that it is 1,384 litres. With all of the rear seats down though it can take 4,500 litres of space.
Summary
So, what do I think of the Vauxhall Vivaro-e Life then. Well it just proves that MPV’s are not dead. Companies don’t need to spend loads of money developing separate MPV models to get a 7 seater car. Vauxhall Citroen and Peugeot have proved that you can make an MPV from a van and I know that it has been done before, but Vauxhall have added style to what actually is a boring van.
Exterior 5/5
Interior 4/5
Practicality 5/5
Total 14/15
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