European Review: Opel Meriva 1.6 CDTI

As we know, the once-glorious Buick has two objectives today: To sell GM products to Chinese people, and to sell Opels to North American people. Of the five Buick models in the US, three (Verano, Regal and Encore) are badge-engineered Opels or at least have their Opel twins. And fourth, the Cascade convertible, is coming soon.

It thus makes sense to look at Opels as potential Buicks. It even works the other way, as many Opels feel a bit like Buicks. With their visual bulk, hard-to-see extremities and hefty weight, they seem much bigger than they really are. In fact, they feel more American than Euro Fords.

So when I got my hands on an Opel Mariva for a week, I tried to see it as a Buick. When you look at it, with its minivan-like profile and weird shoulder line, it doesn’t look like one. But it turns out it would make for a terrific Buick.

Why? Because Buicks are cars for old people. And while the Meriva is supposed to be exact opposite, it actually does the job even better than any of the current Buicks.

The Meriva was conceived as a car for a young family, or maybe a second family car to replace the wife’s supermini. With its reasonable price and small footprint – it’s actually half a foot shorter than Astra hatchback – it can replace a small hatchback, while being much more adept at hauling kids and stuff. But the same things that make it good at this make it even better as a car for old folks.

There is a few things old people usually want in a car. Buicks used to offer all of them – in about 1955. Old people like high seating for easy ingress and egress. They like good visibility and real windows instead of gun slits you find on most new cars (especially Buickpels). And they prefer plush, comfortable suspension to anything “sporty”.

Meriva offers all of this, and some more. The seats are high and provide lots comfort. There is also Opel’s typical wide range of adjustment of everything, from steering wheel reach to seat height. Almost anyone, regardless of body shape, should be able to find a great driving position.

High bodywork also brings airy, roomy interiror and big windows. And with you sitting quite high above window sills, you have great outlook from the car, much unlike other Opels/Buicks, such as Astra or Verano.

Then there’s the biggest surprise: the suspension. For a relatively small, high car on 17” wheels, it is great at filtering ruts and potholes. Actually, in some evironments, it was even a bit plusher than the paragon of old folks’ car – the ’98 Town Car I used as my daily driver. I admit that the ’98, with its stiffer front springs, isn’t the most comfortable of Panthers, but still – for a compact MPV, Town Car is quite a benchmark to beat.

And since we’re talking Lincolns, we should also mention the Meriva’s last party trick. The suicide doors, exactly like those on the classic Continental. They do not just look cool – they have practical advantages as well. Their main raison d’être is probably to make stuffing children into their seats easier, but in reality, they are much better for stuffing stuff in the rear seats.

Coats, briefcases, maybe shopping bags or even canes or walkers. The stuff that would normally require you to take at least few steps around the car to open the rear door (which, especially in case of canes and walkers, can be annoying) can be thrown to the rear seats easily, after just cracking open the rear doors from where you’re standing when getting inside the car. It may not sound like much, but it’s supremely comfortable even for young guy like myself.

Similarly, the suicide doors can be quite convenient for putting kids in the back. There’s a “but”, though. The kids have to be at least toddlers, i.e. suitable for bigger, forward facing child seats (in which case, they’re probably quite able to climb there themselves). For transporting infants in rear facing seats, the doors are quite useless and actually even worse than normal doors.

I know it, because I borrowed some kids to use as guinea pigs. While the almost 3-year old toddler just climbed there, not seeming to give a damn about the way the door opened, putting an infant into the rear facing seat meant standing exactly where the opened door are, which is a bit uncomfortable. Also, there’s not quite enough space for the rear-facing seat. To even fit it there, the rear seat had to be slid in rearmost position and front passenger’s seat so far forward that it would be useless even for modest-sized adult for any trip longer than half and hour. Rear-facing seat behind the driver? No way. And with the rear seats all the way back, forget about going shopping – you’ll either cram a stroller in the trunk, or the shopping, but not both.

Even with the rear seats all the way forward, the trunk is in no way cavernous. It’s about the same size as Golf’s. That’s enough for mother with two children to go shopping, but certainly not enough for a family trip. Customers looking for affordable family vehicle are thus still much better off looking at wagons, which offer much more trunk space at slight expense of worse rear-seat access.

But for older folks, who typicaly need much less trunk space, but haul their friends time from time, the Meriva is perfectly sized. Even the rear seats are wonderfully accessible, offer great visibility and are comfortable. In fact, the only thing that the Buicks of yore had and this hasn’t, is the looks. Buicks used to be long, massive and regal. The Meriva has all the grace and elegance of a hamster with a mouthful of grain. But then, today’s elderly folks tend to buy cars like Honda Fit or Kia Soul lately, so it seems that this shouldn’t be such a problem. I think Derek’s granma would love it.

At least if she bought it with gasoline engine and automatic transmission. The “downsized” 1.6 CDTI diesel, offering the power of a two-liter in a 1.6 package, may be powerful and effective, but it still lacks refinement (althought it’s better than the older Opel diesels). And, as all small diesels, it woefully lacks grunt in low revs. It’s so bad that you will probably stall it regularly for quite some time – I did at least half a dozen times, as did everyone who I let behind the wheel. Once, I even stalled it on the move. And most intended customers don’t even drive enough annual miles to make the diesel worthwhile. On the other hand, the 1.4 Turbo I have driven few years ago, is really nice and even the economy difference isn’t that terrible.

The Verdict

Great city runabout and great car for old folks. Less great for soccer moms and hardly useable as family vehicle. Comfortable and easy to drive. A perfect vehicle to replace your Buick Park Avenue.

@VojtaDobes is motoring journalist from Czech Republic, who previously worked for local editions of Autocar and TopGear magazines. Today, he runs his own website, www.Autickar.cz and serves as editor-in-chief at www.USmotors.cz. After a failed adventure with importing classic American cars to Europe, he is utterly broke, so he drives a ratty Chrysler LHS. His previous cars included a 1988 Caprice in NYC Taxi livery, a hot-rodded Opel Diplomat, two Dodge Coronets, a Simca, a Fiat 600 and Austin Maestro. He has never owned a diesel, manual wagon.