A Perfect Crossover Alternative 2020 Opel Grandland X 1,6 AT

There have been some pretty cool cars coming from the Opel brand lately and they just keep amazing us. We have driven the Adam, Astra, Crossland X and Mokka X, and found them to offer upmarket quality and brilliance for much less.

When we drove the Opel Mokka X last year we described it as a result of uniquely combining what is common. The same can be said for our featured Opel Grandland X. It’s a combination of a big hatch and a luxury cruiser; it’s a compact SUV with the dynamics of a hatch.

Because of its feminine bias, the Grandland is the kind of car for a super-mom, however, because of its strong athletic appeal, it’s the kind of car that dads will make all kinds of excuses to drive.

Not necessarily a market leader, the Grandland is rather a strong alternative that is more affordable, one with ‘as good as can get’ quality and features.

It’s a perfect option for our crossover crazy Namibia. The Grandland is classified as a sub compact SUV and takes on the likes of Citroen C5, Peugeot 3008 and Nissan Qashqai.

Opel is no novice at making great cars, over the years it has been famous for its multiple award winners such as the Kadett, Astra, Monza and earlier greats such as the Kapitan and Admiral. Founded by Adam Opel in 1862 in Russelsheim Germany, the company begun manufacturing bicycles in 1886 and went on to produce its first automobile in 1899 and the rest is history.

The PSA (Peugeot) group acquired Opel in March 2017 for a price of 2,2 billion euro; it’s now only surpassed by the Volkswagen group in Europe.

The Grandland is a showcase of Opel’s design philosophy ‘Sculptural Artistry meets German Precision’, it ensures that the Grandland conveys a lighter, more athletic appearance. It strongly resembles its siblings – the Mokka X and the Crossland X, however, the Grandland is a larger and more athletic car.

Stepping into the interior, my first impression is that the Grandland is very refined. Evident everywhere is the use of light materials solidly put together with no compromise on quality. The Grandland is as good as a low spec Mercedes, BMW or Audi or any other European SUV.

The interior design of the Grandland is similar to that of the Astra and is also echoed in the Mokka, only differing in scale and packaging. Its basic design is almost abstract as it has less symmetric proportions.

Interior features include: Panoramic roof, jet black leather seats, heated ventilated seats, climate control, floor console with sliding arm rests and power operated park brake to name a few.

For infotainment the Grandland is available with Opel OnStar, the personal connectivity and service assistant from GM, however; the technology is being phased out and will soon be replaced by Opel Connect.

Features include: WI-Fi hotspot; Up to seven devices, from smart phones to tablets, can be connected simultaneously and there is Bluetooth and IntelliLink. Also available is Siri for voice command giving access to messaging, maps and calendar to name a few. Other infotainment features include: a powerful, top-of-the-range sat nav, Apple CarPlay, Google and android auto.

Our test Grandland is driven by a 4-cylinder, 1598cc 1,6-litre 121kW power engine which delivers 240Nm when the rubber meets the road. It doesn’t come short in acceleration doing a nippy 0-100km/h in under six seconds. Driving around in Windhoek I realised the kind of person who will drive a Grandland will not require any more pep than it offers; I can hardly envision a mom on a school run doing 0-100 in four or five seconds.

Onto safety, the Grandland is loaded as it is a typical European SUV crossover, it scores the maximum 5-star safety award from Euro NCAP, the world’s strictest crash worthiness body. And this is thanks to features like ISOFIX points, parking sensors, blind spot detection, alertness detection, brake assist (BA), electronic brake force distribution (EBD), ABS, traction control system (TCS), sign assist, hill start assist, lane assist and all encompassing airbags to name a few.

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