Vauxhall Frontera Review & Prices

The Vauxhall Frontera is back. Those of you who remember the original from the early 90s may recall that it was a rather agricultural thing with a clattery diesel engine - well this new one is a very different proposition.

It’s now a funky-looking small SUV with a super-spacious interior and a fuel-sipping petrol-hybrid engine. (There’s the zero-emission Frontera Electric, too.) It’s a bit like seeing that loutish mate you used to hang out with in the pub as a teenager 20 years later, only to find out they’ve got married and settled down to start a family.

The Frontera provides an alternative to budget-friendly SUVs like the Dacia Duster, Hyundai Kona and the MG ZS, only the Vauxhall has an ace up its sleeve - it’s available as a seven-seater.

The new Frontera is a good-looking SUV as well. It has a boxy and rugged shape to it, something which is amplified if you go for the base model because it has steel wheels. Step up a trim level and you get 17-inch alloys.

You may be surprised when you step inside this small SUV to find it’s actually very spacious. That squared-off roofline means you get loads of headroom, and there’s plenty of legroom in the back for even the lankiest of teenagers. Moving around to the boot and you’ll find a decent amount of space. It’s bigger than an MG ZS back there, although the Dacia Duster does boast a few more litres.

Once you and your passengers are comfortable, you may start to notice that the interior feels like it’s built to a budget. There are no soft touch plastics and bits of the cabin feel quite flimsy. It’s still pretty solid on the whole, although a Dacia Duster does feel a bit more robust. You can forgive the cheap-feeling plastics when you look at the generous standard equipment list. There are plenty of toys on board such as a 10.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Out on the road the Frontera isn’t exactly thrilling, but it’s a pretty relaxing car to drive. It handles bumps in the road well, the steering is light and precise enough and there’s very little body roll through the corners for such a tall car.

There are two engines to choose from - both of them petrol hybrids with a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox. You can have a 100hp model which is nippy enough for driving around town, but it’s the 136hp model which is the pick of the range for the added performance.

The new Vauxhall Frontera may feel a bit cheap inside, but it offers a lot of interior space for not a lot of cash. If you’re after a family-friendly SUV which is still small enough for urban living it should be near the top of your shortlist.

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The Vauxhall Frontera represents pretty good value when you consider how much space you get for the money, however a Dacia Duster is a few thousand pounds cheaper and offers similar levels of practicality.

One thing the Duster can’t do though is seat seven people - something you can do in the Frontera for an additional £550 on top-spec GS models. There aren’t actually many optional extras to choose from; most of the kit you’ll want comes as standard.

All models get LED headlights, a reversing camera, rear parking sensors and a 10.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The range-topping GS adds blind spot monitoring, front parking sensors, automatic air conditioning and 17-inch alloy wheels to replace the 16-inch steel rims you get as standard.

If you want luxuries like heated seats, a heated steering wheel, heated windscreen and LED foglights, you’ll have to spend £800 on the Ultimate pack, something which is only available on top-of-the-range Fronteras. The only other option is a Style Pack on the entry-level Design car, which gets you white steel wheels and a white roof for an additional £400.

Interestingly, the Vauxhall Frontera is the first SUV to offer both a hybrid and an electric model for exactly the same price. In most cases an EV variant would be quite a bit more expensive, so this levels the playing field and means the decision comes down to which one suits your needs best.

The Vauxhall Frontera is comfortable and easy to drive in town, but it’s a bit noisy at higher speeds

In town

The Frontera is at its best around town thanks to its narrow body and boxy dimensions; it’s really easy to slot through gaps in traffic. Parking is also a breeze because you can place all four corners of the car without fuss, and the standard-fit reversing camera helps as well.

The tall driving position and large windows give you a great view out - there are very few blind spots to contend with. You also have light steering to take the strain out of tight manoeuvres.

As for the suspension, it deals with potholes pretty well. It can jiggle about a bit over particularly broken surfaces, but on the whole it irons out the bumps nicely. It’s more comfortable than an MG ZS.

If you do most of your driving in town, the 100hp hybrid engine will be more than sufficient. You can glide along in slow-moving traffic without using the engine at all, and the transition from electric to petrol power is smooth and unobtrusive. It can be a bit laggy off the line if you’re looking to zip out at a busy roundabout, but it’s still nippy enough.

That said, those of you sticking to the confines of a town may want to consider the Frontera Electric. It’s the same price as the hybrid, and that car’s silent, zero-emission power is even better suited to urban life if you have access to a charger.

On the motorway

The Frontera may excel in town, but that doesn’t mean it can’t handle a long motorway drive. You do get a bit of tyre noise, and the engine groans a bit when you put your foot down, but it’s a pretty comfortable car to munch up the miles in.

This is thanks in part to the seats, which are super comfortable and supportive. You can spend a good few hours in them without getting a backache. The suspension still performs well at speed as well, although the slab-sided shape does make you susceptible to a bit of buffeting in strong crosswinds.

It’s a shame that you can’t get the Frontera with adaptive cruise control; it just gets a standard setup which won’t maintain your distance to the car in front. It’s not something you can really hold against a car at this price, although an MG ZS does get this feature as standard.

On a twisty road

Being a small SUV the Frontera doesn’t need to feel like a hot hatch through the corners… and it doesn’t. This isn’t the sort of car you’ll be buying for spirited B-road blasts, however it’s pretty balanced on a twisty road.

The steering is precise enough and the car goes where you point it, and body roll is pretty minimal which is impressive in a car as tall and narrow as this. If you push a bit too hard into a corner you get some safe and predictable understeer, but keep it at sensible speeds and it's perfectly competent.

It’s comfortable as well. The Frontera doesn’t jiggle about too much over small imperfections and only really big bumps upset things.

The Frontera is one of the most spacious cars in its class, however there’s not much rear seat storage

Getting comfortable behind the wheel of the Frontera is easy thanks to the range of adjustment in the seats and the steering wheel. There’s masses of headroom and legroom up front, so even the tallest of drivers will find an ideal driving position.

You get a good amount of storage up front as well. The door bins are large enough to swallow up a big bottle, the glovebox is a good size and there’s a wireless charging pad in front of the gear selector. A couple of USB-C ports are also placed here to give you plenty of charging options.

The cupholders have a pretty strange quirk as well. They’re open at the sides with a big elastic strap to stop things falling out, and you can use this to put an iPad or other large items in here. Realistically though you’re not going to do this, and the cupholders themselves are enormous. This is great for a big cup of coffee, but smaller bottles and cans will rattle around and fall over under acceleration or cornering.

Space in the back seats

Space in the back of the Frontera is impressive for a car of this size. It’s the same length as a Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer, but it offers a lot more leg and headroom than that car.

There’s enough room for a six-foot adult to sit behind another six-foot adult with ease. It’s much more spacious in the back than an MG ZS or a Hyundai Kona, and it’s about on par with the Dacia Duster.

Fitting a baby seat is easy thanks to the massive rear doors, which open to almost 90-degrees. The fiddly zip-up ISOFIX covers are a bit annoying though. Once the seat is in place there’s plenty of room for it without sliding the front seat forward.

You don’t get many clever features in the back though, apart from a couple of USB-C chargers and a 12-volt socket. There are no cup holders, the door bins are tiny and the only other storage you get is some pockets on the back of the front seats.

Something no other SUV at this price point offers is the option of seven seats, which you can get in the Frontera for an additional £550 on top-spec models. We haven’t actually tested a car with these chairs fitted yet, but given the size of this car it’s safe to assume that they will only be suitable for kids.

Boot space

Space in the boot is just as impressive as the space in the back seats. You get 460 litres back there, although that does include the massive underfloor storage compartment. It’s a nice square shape which makes it easy to load, and there’s no lip to lift stuff over either.

It’s around 12 litres down on the Dacia Duster’s boot, however an MG ZS gets almost 20 litres less space than the Frontera. If you want maximum boot space for similar money though, a Citroen C5 Aircross has a 600-litre capacity.

Once you’ve folded the rear seats down you get 1,600 litres to play with, and there’s a completely flat load floor to make sliding heavy items to the front easier. There’s also a couple of tie-down points, but that’s your lot really in terms of features.

The Vauxhall Frontera’s cabin is logically laid out and well-equipped for the price, but it does feel pretty cheap

When poking around the Frontera’s cabin you need to keep in mind that this is an inexpensive car, because it’s not as well-polished as something like a Peugeot 2008 or a Volkswagen T-Cross.

All the plastics are hard and scratchy - especially on the basic car which does without the fabric on the doors that you get on the GS. Some bits feel a little flimsy as well, such as the trim around the infotainment system and the clips holding that weird strap around the cupholders.

Minor gripes aside though, the majority of the cabin feels pretty solid. The switchgear all feels good, and all the cabin controls are easy to operate. The physical climate control buttons are a welcome addition, as are the buttons to quickly switch off the lane departure and speed limit warning bongs.

The 10.0-inch infotainment system is best described as basic, but functional. The display itself is pretty bright and responsive, and the menus are easy to navigate. There’s just not that much in the way of functionality - you get a radio, sat-nav and smartphone mirroring - and that’s about it.

But what more do you really need? The wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto pair quickly when you get in the car, so you can stick your music on, pull up Google Maps and be on your way.

The digital driver’s display is also pretty basic, with no options to customise the layout. Still, it displays your speed, battery range and battery percentage clearly, and the screen itself is nice and bright.

There are two engines on offer in the Vauxhall Frontera - both of them 1.2-litre petrol hybrids with a six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. You choose between different power outputs: 100hp or 136hp.

For pootling around town, the 100hp model will be more than adequate, although if you’re looking to venture further afield then the 136hp version is a better bet. For around £1,500 more you get a welcome bit of extra shove which makes overtaking manoeuvres a bit less perilous.

Vauxhall hasn’t confirmed the economy of the 100hp version just yet, however the 136hp car will do 53mpg. You can assume then that the lower-powered car will get between 55 and 60mpg.

The Frontera emits 111g/km of CO2, meaning first-year road tax isn’t particularly expensive. It’ll also sit in the 26% Benefit n Kind tax bracket, so company car drivers might want to consider the all-electric version, which will be much cheaper.

The new Vauxhall Frontera Electric hasn’t been through its Euro NCAP safety tests just yet, but the rest of the Vauxhall range scores well on average, so you can expect this model to perform pretty well.

You get a decent amount of safety kit as standard as well. Lane keeping assist, a reversing camera, autonomous emergency braking and front collision warning are all included, and the top-spec GS gets blind spot monitoring.

The new Frontera Electric has only just gone on sale, so there are no reliability records just yet. Vauxhalls prove to be pretty dependable on the whole though.

All new Vauxhalls are covered by a fairly mediocre three-year warranty. This will be fine if you’re just keeping the car for the length of an average lease deal, however the Kia Niro gets seven years of coverage.