Stilo 5 door vs Vauxhall Meriva
I hired a Meriva whilst taking a holiday in France recently. It struck me as being targeted at a similar buyer as both cars have mini-MPV pretensions. The comparison would be between a top-end 02 Stilo JTD 5 door and a top-end 07 1.6 petrol Meriva which perhaps is rather unfair as the JTD engine is in a different class completely to the lowly powered 1.6
Looks - A no contest win for the Stilo here I’d say
Handling - little doubt the Stilo outclasses the Meriva in this area
Ride - I have to admit the ride quality of the Meriva is quite superb and easily outclasses my lowered Stilo. In fact, I was so impressed I’ve started to consider putting the softer springs back on the Stilo (No; not the rusty set I’ve just taken down the tip ) to as least offer some competition
Noise - seemed very good but not tested at very high speed
Performance - was pretty dire and I suspect it would have still come off very badly if compared directly against a Stilo 1.6
Practical Features: Like the Stilo the Meriva has sliding rear seats but these seats can be almost completely flattened so it seems very likely the Meriva could handle a larger load than the Stilo (that said, the amount of stuff you can get into a 5 door still amazes me). Like the Stilo it has many useful pockets.
Driving - the rear view when reversing is terrible and why they don’t fit reversion sensors to a high-spec model amazes me.
General Impressions - The car almost matched the Stilo in some respects such as remote closing windows and dead-locking but in others it seemed years in the past. No timed cabin lights, no onboard computer, simple LED dash display looked crude compared to LCD display of the Stilo.
Summary: On my last holiday we hired a Panda and I was very impressed (although still glad to get behind the wheel of the JTD) but other than the few positives I was decidedly unimpressed with the Meriva which is very reassuring when you consider the Stilo is giving away 5 years :spin:
I hired a Meriva whilst taking a holiday in France recently. It struck me as being targeted at a similar buyer as both cars have mini-MPV pretensions. The comparison would be between a top-end 02 Stilo JTD 5 door and a top-end 07 1.6 petrol Meriva which perhaps is rather unfair as the JTD engine is in a different class completely to the lowly powered 1.6
Looks - A no contest win for the Stilo here I’d say
Handling - little doubt the Stilo outclasses the Meriva in this area
Ride - I have to admit the ride quality of the Meriva is quite superb and easily outclasses my lowered Stilo. In fact, I was so impressed I’ve started to consider putting the softer springs back on the Stilo (No; not the rusty set I’ve just taken down the tip ) to as least offer some competition
Noise - seemed very good but not tested at very high speed
Performance - was pretty dire and I suspect it would have still come off very badly if compared directly against a Stilo 1.6
Practical Features: Like the Stilo the Meriva has sliding rear seats but these seats can be almost completely flattened so it seems very likely the Meriva could handle a larger load than the Stilo (that said, the amount of stuff you can get into a 5 door still amazes me). Like the Stilo it has many useful pockets.
Driving - the rear view when reversing is terrible and why they don’t fit reversion sensors to a high-spec model amazes me.
General Impressions - The car almost matched the Stilo in some respects such as remote closing windows and dead-locking but in others it seemed years in the past. No timed cabin lights, no onboard computer, simple LED dash display looked crude compared to LCD display of the Stilo.
Summary: On my last holiday we hired a Panda and I was very impressed (although still glad to get behind the wheel of the JTD) but other than the few positives I was decidedly unimpressed with the Meriva which is very reassuring when you consider the Stilo is giving away 5 years :spin: