Vauxhall Viva review ~ station of gear

For:

Competitive prices, stylish, decent kit list

Our Rating:

Against:

Underpowered engine, road noise, few personalisation options

2015

The Vauxhall Viva is back, entering the crowded city car segment with low prices and plenty of kit

The Vauxhall Viva is the cheapest new Vauxhall you can buy. It rivals cars like the brilliant Skoda Citigo and Hyundai i10, as well as the new Suzuki Celerio and Peugeot 108, yet with prices starting from just £7,995, it undercuts the lot of them.

Available with just one engine, all Vivas get a 74bhp naturally aspirated 1.0 petrol with 95Nm of torque – making it good for 0-62mph in 13.1 seconds. Buyers will have to make do with a five-speed manual gearbox, too, at least until an automatic option arrives in 2016 – but that’s no bad thing as it’s easy to use and makes busy town driving a doddle.

• Best city cars to buy now

Standard equipment isn’t bad, either. All cars come with five seats, electrically adjustable mirrors and cruise control, as well as a trip computer and remote central locking. Only two trims are available, with the top-spec SL adding climate control, USB and Bluetooth connectivity, 15-inch alloy wheels and a leather-covered steering wheel. Safety kit is good, too, with tyre pressure monitoring, curtain airbags and ESP all standard.

The fact remains that the Vauxhall Viva is best suited to the city. Visibility is good, the steering is light and the engine utterly underpowered. The Citigo and i10 both feel more grown up and better suited to the motorway, but if you spend most your time in an urban environment, the Viva could be the car for you.

Our choice: Vauxhall Viva 1.0 SL

2 Jun, 2015

The Vauxhall Viva seemingly bucks the trend for fashionable, customisable small cars, offering a relatively measly options list and scope for personalisation.

That said, even in its most basic spec, it’s a relatively stylish small car. It’s well proportioned thanks to some well placed slices down the doors and short front and rear overhangs. It’s instantly recognisable as a Vauxhall from the front, and will feel familiar to existing owners on the inside too.

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With only two trims to choose from, choosing your Viva shouldn’t prove too difficult. Basic SE models get electrically adjustable door mirrors, cruise control and a trip computer, as well as steering wheel mounted audio controls, a height-adjustable driver’s seat and electric front windows. Air conditioning costs £495.

Step up to the SL and you get a load more extra kit, including two-tone trim on the dash, climate control, Bluetooth, six speakers and 15-inch alloy wheels. Cleverly, Vauxhall has designed the basic car’s wheels to look like alloys, despite actually having plastic wheel trims. There’s a variety of colours to choose from, though all the metallic options cost upwards of £500.

The Viva belongs in the city, there’s no two ways about it. There’s only one engine choice – a 74bhp, 1.0-litre petrol – and it needs working pretty hard to make decent progress. The five-speed manual gearbox is smooth and easy to use, though, and the ride strikes just the right balance between comfort and handling. A Vauxhall Viva automatic will join the range in January 2016.

It’s well suited to town driving, where the decent visibility and light steering make manoeuvring a doddle. The tiny engine actually produces a decent turn of speed away from the lights, too, so you won’t have any trouble keeping up with urban traffic.

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Out on the open road, though, the Viva needs to be thrashed to within an inch of its life to make any sort of progress. The three-cylinder engine is crying out for a turbo – like the one found in the Corsa and Adam – but Vauxhall insists that in order to keep the price down, adding one just isn’t feasible.

Another problem is road noise. While wind whistle is nicely muted and the engine is quite quiet, the roar from the tyres infiltrates the cabin causing an unacceptable din. Even on the standard 15-inch wheels, you’ll find longer journeys a struggle.

Vauxhall recently dropped its class-leading lifetime warranty, so the Viva makes do with a three-year, 60,000-mile guarantee. While that’s on a par with the likes of VW’s up! and the Suzuki Celerio, it trails the Hyundai i10’s five-year warranty and the Kia Picanto’s unprecedented seven-year agreement. That said, Vauxhall makes thousands and thousands of cars each year and has the second biggest dealer network in the UK – so if anything does go wrong, it shouldn’t be too problematic to fix.

The Viva is too new to have featured in the 2015 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, but the highest placed Vauxhall model was in fact the Zafira Tourer – way down in 79th place. Vauxhall had a poor showing overall, too, finishing 30th out of 32 manufacturers, beating just Suzuki and now defunct Chrysler in 31st and 32nd respectively.

In terms of safety, the Viva scores quite well. It hasn’t been tested by Euro NCAP yet, but all cars get six airbags, ABS, ESP, hill-start assist, lane departure warning and front fog lamps with cornering function. That’s not bad for a sub-£8,000 city car.

No city car is going to set records for outright carrying capacity, but the Vauxhall Viva is quite a versatile little car. Its 206-litre boot is slightly down on the best in class (the Hyundai i10 boasts 252 litres, while the Suzuki Celerio gets a cavernous 254 litres) if you fold down the seats you’ll reveal a respectable 1,013 litres, which is considerably more than its rivals.

There’s enough room for a six-foot adult to sit behind a similarly-sized driver, and all cars come with three, three-point belts in the back. You wouldn’t want to sit three abreast for very long, but it’s nice to know the functionality is there should you need it.

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You’ll find a load of handy features inside, too, with various cubbies and a decent sized glovebox. All cars come with a plethora of safety systems, and from 2016 you’ll be able to specify the Intellilink touchscreen with OnStar concierge service. This will allow drivers to call a Vauxhall representative and remotely plumb in a destination to the car’s sat-nav – all without taking their eyes off the road.

Visibility is good, and things like parking sensors are available on the options list.

Thanks to the fact the Vauxhall Viva is only available with one, tiny 74bhp engine – no model should cost much to run. There is a choice of standard or ecoFLEX models, with the latter adding low rolling resistance tyres and some aerodynamic add-ons for sub-100g/km CO2 emissions.

The standard car will do 62.8mpg and emit 104g/km of CO2 for £20 annual VED. That’s pretty good and on a par with similarly specced rivals. Those looking for ultimate low running costs should opt for that ecoFLEX model though, which pushes fuel economy north of 70mpg.

Pricing is competitive, too, with even the top-spec SL coming in under £10,000. The basic SE, which does without air-con and alloy wheels, is currently a smidge under £8,000 - a bargain whichever way you look at it. The ecoFLEX model costs £175 more, so consider how you’ll use it before you take the plunge. You’ll need to run it for almost nine years to make the difference back on what you’ll save in road tax.

All cars come with a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty, but thanks to the long 20,000-mile/one-year service intervals, you shouldn’t find yourself shelling out too much on maintenance. Of course, like with any other Vauxhall, fixed price servicing is available.

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