VAUXHALL GRANDLAND

Vauxhall moves its bigger SUV firmly into single-car-household territory

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The market for volume-selling family SUVs is now sufficiently large, it would seem, that it can be carved into slimmer and slimmer, yet still commercially viable, slices.

The subject of this road test, the Mk2 Vauxhall Grandland, shows how. This is the biggest SUV with a Vauxhall badge since the Isuzu Trooper-based Monterey of 1994. It is, however, a particular kind of moderately large, high-rise family holdall: one with a big boot, a roomy second row and plenty of cabin storage, but strictly no seven-seat option. This is an extra-practical alternative to a Nissan Qashqai - but not to a Skoda Kodiaq.

It was introduced to the UK towards the end of 2024 but is only this year becoming available in all of its various derivative versions. Its functional, practical and straightforward positioning seems typical of Vauxhall. But is there enough evidence here of the new, style-literate Vauxhall that we have come to know recently?

DESIGN & ENGINEERING

PROS Lots of metal for the money; 400-mile-plus EV option CONS Hybrid is relatively short on power; slightly bland, boxy looks

The first-generation Grandland (launched with an X model suffix in 2017) was a sub-4.5m model, and so more typical of the C-SUV class. This second-generation one is 4.65 metres long, and is also about 50mm wider and taller than before. That's a growth spurt few will miss.

It represents the first outing of Stellantis's STLA Medium platform for Vauxhall and becomes the sixth passenger car since 2020 (counting passenger versions of both the Combo and Vivaro) that the brand has offered as both a combustion-engined model and an EV. The 73kWh standard-range Grandland Electric was introduced alongside the petrol-electric Hybrid in 2024; a 97kWh Long Range EV is expected to hit the UK later in 2025, along with a dual-motor 73kWh model.