X marks Grandland spot for Opel

I’m not a ‘kick ’em while they’re down’ sort of guy, but in the case of Opel over the last five years or so, it has been very hard not to be that person, given the alarming fall from grace we have witnessed at the once great company.

Sat, 11 Aug, 2018 - 01:00

By Declan Colley

Admittedly, the management at Russelsheim was hardly to blame for Opel’s near cataclysmic decline, especially as their bosses over at General Motors in the US failed them abysmally by cutting investment and stifling growth.

I mean, trying to keep R&D pace with the likes of Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW, and the rest when you are being given a Halfords voucher and a couple of cast-offs from bigger brother’s wardrobe is not exactly conducive to maintaining either sales or credibility.

The sale of the company to the PSA Group, which controls both Peugeot and Citroen, was probably hugely welcome in the state of Hesse and prompted much relief among both management and staff at Opel who had previously been fearful they would be thrown to the wolves of financial fiduciary and the consequent human and industrial calamity.

And, while the company has done well in the first 12 months of PSA ownership — just two weeks ago it revealed half-year profits of €502m and operational-free cashflow of around €1.2bn — the amazing thing is that it has done so with a largely elderly product line-up with very few stars in that same roster.

Certainly Opel has popular cars — Insignia, Corsa, Mokka — but none of them could be considered class leaders by any stretch of anyone’s imagination. The current Astra is a cut above what anybody reasonably expected, but the Adam and the Karl were little more than gap-pluggers in the squad.

Unfortunately when Opel released details of their new SUV range — consisting of the Crossland X and the Grandland X — the feeling once more in these quarters was that this was mere window-dressing and, given the chronic lack of investment cash coming across the Atlantic, these would be awfully cheap and horrible cars.

We try the bigger Grandland X this week and while pondering the thought that Opel is fully 10 years behind in the SUV stakes — it is now 10 years, believe it or not, since Nissan made the Qashqai and turned the crossover SUV into a mainstream car segment and thus forced everyone else to follow suit. Opel never caught the bus and the Grandland X is, unbelievably, the company’s first stab at the genre at this level.

Also worth pondering is that the Grandland X is built on the same platform as the Peugeot 3008, is also powered by Peugeot engines, and is actually built in France — all on the back of agreements made long before the French ever decided to buy Opel.

This all adds up to the fact that this is a blood-stemming exercise and in applying the Grandland X tourniquet to a large and gaping wound, Opel is trying to buy time and curtail the seemingly endless customer defections plaguing the brand as loyal punters sought solace elsewhere.

It looks good, though, and is generously equipped and pretty practical, but forget any ideas you might have had about off-roading or anything adventurous like that as this is a front-wheel drive only car and Opel have no plans to make it anything else.

Forget, too, any grandiose thoughts you might have had about the interior. While the seating is comfortable and the Grandland X is passenger friendly and has a roomy boot, the general décor is industrialist at best and the amount of soft-touch plastics is meagre.

What will impress is the full suite of goodies that comes with this machine, from the Navi 5.0 IntelliLink system, to the 8in colour touchscreen and Opel’s bespoke OnStar concierge service. You also get a bunch of assist functions, including front camera, lane departure warning, traffic sign recognition, and front and rear parking sensors.

Adding to the appeal are items such as automatic high beam light assistance, rain sensing wipers, electric mirrors with puddle lights, cruise control with speed limiter and dual zone climate control, while on the comfort front, you will find ambient lighting as part of the package, although you have to buy the Jean Michel Jarre records yourself for the real ambient feel. If the car it is based on could be described as being on the ‘now’ side of things — the Peugeot this is based on is blessed with a funky interior, although the i-Cockpit thing is not for everyone — the Opel is a relic of conservatism. Then again, that might please many people.

Out on the road it drives well, but nothing like as good as the class leaders; it has quite a noticeable understeering trait and the ride is only barely up to class standards. On top of that the gear change is long and sloppy, so much so that finding the right cog can, on occasion, be tiresome.

The 1.6 turbodiesel engine pumps out some 120 bhp which is not exactly significantly impressive — and neither are the 11.8-second 0-100km/h time and the top speed of 189km/h — but it drives well and what is eye-catching for some punters is the 4.0 l/100 km (70 mpg) and the 104 g/km emissions for an annual tax bill of €190.

On the evidence we have seen, therefore, Opel is well late to the SUV party with a car which, I suspect, is only something of a stop-gap measure with corporate eyes being firmly focused on a brighter and more engaging future.

Sure, Opel will sell a lot of these things to people who care not one whit about dynamism or the actual pleasure of driving; for those people for whom getting about the place quietly, safely, and in some comfort is their primary concern, the Grandland X will present a practical and cost-effective choice.

Things are definitely looking up, chez Opel and the growing involvement of the French in the decision-making and the design of the drivetrains and chassis can only be good for an operation which was so starved of investment cash for so long.

The Grandland X, therefore, may only be a pointer to a brighter future for Opel, but as simple as that sounds, it is a hell of a lot better than the vista facing the company just 12 short months ago.

Vive la difference.