From the keyboard of Dr Jan

On our recent trip to Scotland our hire car turned out to be a Vauxhall Zafira. The second hire car was also a Zafira - we had to return the first one almost immediately because the windscreen washer failed to work. We had to return the second Zafira the next day, because when I opened the bonnet to fill up the screen washer bottle, I noticed that the oil filler cap was missing from the top of the engine and the entire engine bay was covered in engine oil. Thankfully, the third hire car was a Ford Mondeo. The Zafira is a moderately successful car, but there are some major annoyances.

In no particular order:

• the cigarette lighter socket is underneath the handbrake, which means it’s difficult to plug in to and so far from the windscreen that you can’t use a satnav unit without an extension lead.
• The gearbox is amazingly clunky. Thinking back to previous Vauxhalls I’ve driven, they’ve all had clunky gearboxes, and using those as a base line, the Zafira is actually an improvement. Maybe driving the Nissan Qashqai has just spoiled me
• The indicator stalk is annoying. It doesn’t stick - the stalk always returns to the central position. If you move it up or down to the first ‘click’, you get 3 flashes of the indicators. If you move it up or down to the second click the indicators flash until you flick the stalk the other way, or you finish turning a corner. Whilst this sounds fine in theory, in practice you find that sometimes you only get to the first click when you think you’ve got to the second and then when you go to cancel the indicators what you actually do is start them on the opposite side. And if you try and cancel those, you get them on the original side again. Which is extremely frustrating. I have seen Vauhall cars before indicating one side then the other, then the first side again on more than one occasion
• The wiper control is similarly annoying for the same reason.

How depressing must it be to be any kind of designer for the Zafira? “We’re trying to design a vehicle whose main quality is ‘mediocrity’”.

In contrast, the Ford Mondeo was a marvellous car The indicator stalk works exactly as you expect it to, the cigarette lighter is in an ash tray in the dash, ideally positioned for satnav use, and the gearbox was a delight to use. Huge numbers of extra points were scored for having a very effective cruise control, an electrically heated windscreen and a 2 litre engine. Because it’s a saloon car, the aerodynamics at the back of the car mean that above about 30 mph the rear screen is kept clean of rain and road spray, in contradistinction to the Zafira which has a much more vertical rear window which becomes dirty at all speeds.

Now that I’ve driven the Mondeo, I’d like to revise my opinion of the Zafira - it’s just rubbish. I appreciate that these two cars are aimed at very different market segments, but the Mondeo gets pretty much everything spot on - it feels like a high quality product and it’s a joy to drive, whilst the Zafira is just disappointing in so many ways.

In summary:

Vauxhall: Boo!

Ford: Hurrah!