VAUXHALL

VAUXHALL SLINGS THE SETSQUARE The old Vauxhall Agila was best characterised as a box with a wheel at each corner. The latest version adds some style to the mix. Andy Enright reports

The demands placed on city cars grow ever more exacting with each passing generation. Time was when a city car needed to be small, economical and cheap to insure. Those times have gone. The latest Vauxhall Agila must satisfy those demanding better safety, higher quality, lower emissions and classier styling. First impressions look good.

It’s Japan that we have to thank for the Vauxhall Agila. The original Agila model was, as many of you doubtless know, a rebadged version of the Suzuki Wagon R+, hastily rushed into production to plug a hole in Vauxhall’s range that was being ruthlessly exploited by Ford’s massively successful Ka. In truth, the old Agila never stood a chance but ask anybody who’s driven one and they’ll attest to the fact that it was huge fun to drive and could carry four passengers a lot more comfortably than a Ka. Despite offering more of what really counts for city car drivers than Ford’s cheeky Ka, the old Vauxhall Agila was just too boxy, too obviously Japanese and too clearly a rather cynical afterthought to really capture the public’s imagination. Vauxhall were caught on the hop, not anticipating that demand existed for a car smaller and nippier than a Corsa but exist it did. Fast forward to today and as the Corsa has become bigger and more complex, the vacuum beneath it is even more apparent. Step forward the latest Agila. History has repeated itself in one sense insofar as the Agila is once again a shape you’ll see in Suzuki form – their car dubbed the Splash – but Vauxhall thinks their version will create bigger ripples and become the big fish in the small car pond. Although Vauxhall are once again sharing technology with Suzuki, this time round things are being worked on a rather different basis. This is no outdated hand-me-down, the latest Agila sporting a bang up to date chassis and three engines that are certainly class competitive at the very least. The line up opens with a 64bhp 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol unit and continues with a punchier 85bhp 1.2-litre powerplant. This engine is also offered with the option of an automatic gearbox which would certainly take the strain out of nose-to-tail city traffic. The range topper will be the 74bhp 1.3-litre CDTi diesel that’s also fitted to the Corsa and the Tigra. Rather underwhelming in the larger, heavier cars, it should endow the Agila with a reasonable amount of oomph.

"Vauxhall thinks this Agila will become a big fish in the small car pond…"

The key criterion that Vauxhall wouldn’t diverge from is a requirement for five doors in a city car. Kia showed that this was a strong attractor with its five-door Picanto, an otherwise fairly unremarkable car that garnered big sales because buyers didn’t fancy herniated discs by hauling a child seat in and out of a three-door car. The Agila integrates those doors a good deal more cleanly than many city tots, the rising waistline of the car giving it a dynamic, wedgy appearance, albeit to the slight detriment of a good view out for shorter kids in the back. The rear seat backs can also be folded down to create a totally flat load floor, serving up a total of 1,150 litres of available space. Suzuki Splash sister model aside, no other city car can touch this. The hip point for the front seat has been deliberately set high to make getting in and out of the car easy, offering a commanding view of the road and taking advantage of that high roofline. The styling is neat and very well resolved. There’s a certain degree of Mercedes A-Class in the wheel at each corner stance while the rear three-quarter has elements of Renault Modus to it. Overall, the Agila is a very clean and cohesive piece of work. The Agila will need to be at the top of its game to face down the best in the city car sector, Right now that’s still the Fiat Panda, another car that offers five doors and plenty of interior space. There’s real change afoot in this sector though. The Ka is being pensioned off and a new model introduced, riding on the same platform as Fiat’s chi-chi new 500. The struggle to carve out decent market share isn’t going to be pretty but a year or so will demonstrate this automotive evolution at work with the fittest surviving and the rest left to lick their wounds. The Agila is coming equipped to do battle, with big car features such as optional ESP stability control and four airbags. It will certainly plump Vauxhall’s bottom line up a bit better than the old Agila, a car which failed to make much of a dent in the public consciousness. Vauxhall has wisely retrenched and learned its lesson from that episode, incorporating the best assets of that car – its space and five-door form – with the style and engineering of a Ford Ka or a Fiat Panda. The choice of a diesel engine certainly isn’t going to hurt sales either. For a major car manufacturer, Vauxhall is a difficult company to second guess. It seems to pour resource at sometimes quite esoteric market sectors. For instance, the company was busy bring the VX220 roadster to market when it had no class competitive city car. While this doesn’t end up looking too clever on the balance sheet, it keeps us industry watchers on our toes. A long line of rather niche models such as the Monaro, Signum and VXR versions of the Meriva and Zafira have rather distracted us from the pressing need for a genuine profit-making model slotted in beneath the Corsa. The latest Agila is just that car and should do very well. Naturally much will hinge upon how aggressively Suzuki prices the Splash and there may well be a bit of a nod and a wink when it comes to predatory pricing in Vauxhall’s home market. The broader range of dealerships may well be enough to swing things in Vauxhall’s favour if pricing is set to be close. Now I’m intrigued to see if the likes of Ford and Fiat can come up with anything better.

FACTS AT A GLANCE CAR: Vauxhall Agila range PRICES: from £6,500 [est] – on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 1-3 [est] CO2 EMISSIONS: [1.0] 139g/km (est) PERFORMANCE: [1.0] 0-60mph 16.7s / Max Speed 90mph (est) FUEL CONSUMPTION: [1.0] 48.7mpg (combined) [est] STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: twin front and side airbags, ABS WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: length/width/height 3.7/1.7/1.6m

THE CITY END OF THE SCHTICK? Models Covered: (5dr hatchback 1.0, 1.2 petrol)

BY ANDY ENRIGHT

The Agila marked Vauxhall’s first foray into the citycar market, and although it was a new venture for the British company, it was far from a brand new model, being in effect a rebadged Suzuki Wagon R+ albeit with a pair of engines not shared with its Japanese counterpart. In many ways the Agila legitimised the boxy tall citycar, as examples had been offered here for some years by manufacturers such as Daihatsu and Suzuki but had been viewed with suspicion. The Agila has sold in reasonable numbers and with good reason – it’s a superb car if you like to remain in the urban sprawl and crawl. A used example won’t have clocked up too many miles but you may need to look carefully to see if its short life has been unduly harsh. It’s a jungle out there…

Vauxhall aren’t renowned as innovators, instead preferring to tread a conservative middle ground. It therefore came as something of a shock to the company to see UK sales of tiny citycars rocket at the tail end of the nineties. Ford’s ka was starting to do good business, as was the Fiat Seicento and Volkswagen Lupo. Something needed to be done and quick. Without the requisite time to develop a new citycar rival in-house, General Motors instead wielded the chequebook and in a joint venture with Suzuki unleashed the Agila. Perhaps this is an oversimplified account of how the Agila came into being, as it represents far more than a rebadged Wagon R+. Nevertheless, Vauxhall offered two versions of the Agila when it was launched in June 2000. By this stage the Suzuki donor vehicle was on its second iteration and many of the car’s quality and handling issues had been resolved. Two engines were available, a 1.0-litre 12-valve three-cylinder unit that developed a stonking 57bhp and a more desirable 1.2-litre unit that also saw service in the Corsa, making a more substantial 74bhp. In 2003 the Agila received a mild facelift as well as an uprated 1.0-litre Twinport engine.

As already suggested, the upright, boxy stance creates far more interior space than you’d find in a conventional European citycar. So much in fact that you could even see your Agila as a kind of tiny MPV People Carrier. This of course assumes you’re not travelling four-up (in which case there’s only a paltry 8.7cuft – or 248 litres - of luggage space). With the rear bench unoccupied however and the 50/50 split back seats folded flat, that area can be increased five-fold to 1250 litres. There’s plenty of oddments space too, with drawers under the front seats, cup and bottle holders and knee-height shelves for both front passengers. All that said, it’s as well to remember how narrow this car is before you go making any grand plans for long journeys. The rear bench is so narrow that there isn’t even a centre seatbelt. On the plus side, passengers sit 83mm higher than they would in a Corsa, so there’s excellent visibility through the vast glass area. This incidentally, makes air-conditioning a very desirable option (as you’ll discover on a hot day), so it’s a pity you can only specify it on the 1.2-litre model. Just one trim level is being offered but it’s reasonably comprehensive. Power steering, electric mirrors, an engine immobiliser, tinted glass, body-coloured bumpers and mirrors, a radio cassette player and Vauxhall’s excellent dash-top information display all come as standard. Central locking and deadlocks would have been nice – but you have to specify an extra cost ‘Comfort Pack’ to get them (along with power front windows). There’s also an ‘Exterior Plus Pack’ with alloy wheels and front foglamps. Safety is a justifiable concern with cars like this: some of the Japanese citycar alternatives don't inspire much confidence as to their crashworthiness. The Agila is different however, with a safety-first design culture that goes much deeper than simply having a driver's airbag as standard. A maximum NCAP impact-test score is predicted thanks to ideas like a clever system that pulls the pedals away from your feet in a smash. There are also height-adjustable seat belts that limit the force exerted on passengers’ chests, even in a minor crash. Anti-lock brakes and a front passenger airbag are optional.

Expect to pay £2,800 for a 2000 W-plated 1.0-litre Agila and £3,000 for an equivalent 1.2-litre car. Insurance Groups are 2 and 3 respectively. Optional Comfort Packs and Exterior Packs tend to bump the price up by around £200.

The Agila is a surprisingly durable little car. The 1.0-litre version isn’t particularly adept at motorway work, so many have quite low mileages. That’s not to say they won’t have suffered much wear and tear: the twin demands of city driving and ferrying kids around is an acid test if ever there was one. Check the interiors for signs of damage to fittings, rips or stains on the upholstery and damage in the load bay caused by bulky objects (the seat backs are rather vulnerable). Check tyre wear and also the condition of the exhaust, and make sure all gears engage cleanly and do not jump out. Otherwise insist on a service record and buy with confidence.

(approx based on a 2000 1.0-litre Agila) Consumables prices for the Agila are comfortingly modest. Expect to pay around £8 for an air filter, £15 for a fuel filter and £4 for a spark plug.

Since you may not be expecting too much in terms of road-roading excitement, it’s likely that you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the way the Agila handles. You’ll be genuinely impressed by the car’s responsive power steering, agile change of direction and lack of body roll. Sixty is around 13 seconds away from rest in the 1.2-litre model on the way to a maximum of close to 100mph, so motorway travel is well within this Vauxhall’s remit. It gets a bit noisy in the upper reaches of the rev range however, so you won’t want to be undertaking too many inter-city trips. Nevertheless, the 1.2 differentiates itself from its smaller engined sibling as a car that can be used long distance rather than one where motorway work is a constant white-knuckle struggle. More important for potential buyers will be the Agila’s urban behaviour – an area in which it’s predictably impressive. The car will turn through 180 degrees in less than 10 metres – which should prove useful in multi-storey car parks and in tight streets. Fuel economy meanwhile, is of course very good – though you won’t gain much by opting for the smaller 1.0-litre engine in this respect. Both units should return around 40mpg in ordinary day-to-day use. Maintenance costs are also going to be very low.

Unless you plan to use the car solely for short-distance work in the urban sprawl and crawl, try to stretch for a 1.2-litre model. The added flexibility makes driving far easier. You may have to search quite hard to find the car you like, as there aren’t too many used Agilas about and the Network Q Scheme may be your best bet. Although it may be damning it with faint praise, it’s a truism that the Agila is better than it looks. The margin by which may well surprise you.