VAUXHALL GRANDLAND vs FORD EXPLORER

These two brands have been the 'pile it high, sell it cheap' kings of the UK market for decades, but their new core models take a very different tack...

- PAUL HORRELL

Celtic versus Rangers, MacOS vs Windows, Yorks vs Lancs... the age-old rivalries of the big beasts. And Ford versus Vauxhall: these pages have always been filled with face-offs of Focuses and Astras, STs and GSis, Fiestas and Corsas. In the light of which, lining up their most recent mainstream family cars is our routine duty. But of course, things have changed. For a start, Ford’s and Vauxhall’s mainstream family cars, if bought on company car schemes, are electric crossovers now. So here are the Explorer and Grandland. But the tectonic plates have shifted in other directions too. Ford and Vauxhall aren’t really the big beasts any longer. Volkswagen is comfortably the top-selling brand in Britain, leaving Ford and Vauxhall to be beaten both by exclusive players like BMW and Audi, and relative newcomer Kia.

The result is our former giants now have to take the obvious cost-cutting measure of shared platforms. Under the Grandland’s skin is parent company Stellantis’ STLA Medium kit of parts, as per the Peugeot e-3008. Ford had to look outside the family, alighting on the VW ID’s basic components. These days there’s a lot that can be done with tuning to make related cars feel different. And a lot that can’t.