Vauxhall Zafira Tourer (2011)

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Vauxhall Zafira Tourer (2011) first official pictures

By Ben Pulman

First Official Pictures

18 May 2011 00:01

It’s not the new Vauxhall Zafira, it’s the new Vauxhall Zafira Tourer. Why the new name? Because the current Zafira will continue to be sold alongside the new Zafira Tourer, which lands in UK showrooms in early 2012.

Vauxhall claims its new MPV sits above the current car and will ‘raise the bar for design, luxury, flexibility and innovation in the MPV sector’. In other words, it’s now going directly after Ford’s excellent S-Max.

Right, what will my family like about the new Vauxhall Zafira Tourer?

The clever Flex7 technology (allowing five seats to quickly become seven) that debuted on original Zafira remains, but it’s been updated: the third row still folds flush with the floor, but the second row is no longer one big bench but three separate seats. Each one can be folded and moved forward and backwards through 210mm, to give kids (or unfortunate adults forced to ride in the back) a little extra legroom. 

Pay a little more and the middle seat in the second row folds and rotates to become armrests for passengers either side, whose seats in turn can slide by 280mm and inboard by 50mm for some additional space. The Meriva also donates its FlexConsole to the Zafira, the trick central storage system running between the front seats.

There’s a bigger boot too, now 710 litres in five-seat configuration (up 65 litres on the current car) and a whopping 1860 litres (up 40 litres) with all the rear seats folded flat. But all this space hasn’t been found from nowhere – the new Zafira Tourer features a 57mm longer wheelbase and wider tracks (up 96mm at the front and 78mm at the rear), and is 190mm longer overall.