Vauxhall Grandland X (2017-2021) Review

The Vauxhall Grandland X is right for you if you're looking for a spacious family car that goes about its business without drawing attention to itself. Though some might say it's boring., the Vauxhall's a nice car to drive on open roads and its PureTech petrol engine is excellent, while you can also choose from two petrol-electric hybrids that are ideal in town, and a diesel model that's best if you often drive on the motorway.  

The Vauxhall Grandland X is seen in its best light when fitted with a 130PS PureTech petrol engine, which delivers fizzy performance – considering its tiny 1.2-litre capacity – and excellent fuel economy. It's worth avoiding the most basic Vauxhall Grandland X SE and SE Premium cars like the plague. After all, the Grandland X's rather unloved status means it's very affodable on the used market, so we'd be tempted to reap these rewards and get behind the wheel of a high-end Elite Nav or Ultimate car, which come with a leather interior and a panoramic glass roof.  

You have a huge choice if you're looking for a mid-sized SUV. The mechanically identical Peugeot 3008 has more style in its wing mirror than the Grandland X has in its entire body, while Volkswagen Group SUVs – the classy Volkswagen Tiguan, Skoda Karoq and SEAT Ateca – feel nicer inside and are better designed.  We'd also suggest looking at the refined Ford Kuga and, if it's hybrid power you want, the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V both excel.

Other models worth considering include the Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson, both of which have long warranties and a reputation for reliability, plus the popular Nissan Qashqai and Renault Kadjar.

Plastic quality is hard to fault in the Vauxhall Grandland X. The majority of the dashboard is made from spongy plastics that feel dense and expensive, and the tops of the doors are made from the same stuff. 

It's not a clean sweep, though: the stalks behind the steering wheel don't work with the same oily damping of a Volkswagen Group car, the leather seats on the Vauxhall Grandland X Elite Nav model we tried didn't feel, well, very leathery, and the commotion made when you turn on the ventilated seats makes you wonder if a tiny WW2 air raid siren is being spooled up deep inside the seat. 

Meanwhile, shining a phone torch on the centre console (done while plugging in a USB, more on that in a moment) revealed exposed cables between the gaps in the trim and, finally, neither the heated seats nor the steering wheel are capable of generating significant warmth, despite the former having three settings to choose from. 

In fairness, these are all minor complaints, but ones you won't have to put up with in the likes of the Skoda Karoq. 

Vauxhall Grandland X  SE or SE Premium models (the entry-level ones, depending on when your car was built) get a 7.0-inch infotainment screen that comes complete with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto so you can use your phone's navigation and music playback apps (and many more) on the car's big screen. It's easy to navigate using the same menus you're used to on your phone and it also uses your handset's voice activation system so you can do almost everything without having to take your hands of the steering wheel. 

The rest of the range comes with an 8.0-inch centre screen, which has Vauxhall's own navigation and voice activation (neither of which you'll ever use if your phone's compatible with Android Auto/Apple CarPlay). This system comes with a three-year subscription to Vauxhall Connect which, as well as having live traffic updates, also allows you to connect to your car remotely, via an app, so you can do things like (on the hybrid model) check its battery charge status. 

Wireless charging is only fitted as standard to hybrid models (it was a £180 option on other models), which is annoying because plugging a cable into the USB or the 12V socket – which are recessed in a dark centre console cubby – is almost impossible to do at night without a torch. It's the natural place to put your phone, so it's also odd most large-screened handsets won't fit in the cubby. 

You could be tall or small and still get a comfortable driving position in the Vauxhall Grandland X because the driver's seat has a wide range of adjustment to match the rake and reach movement of the steering wheel. Elite X models are the first to add an electrically adjustable driver's seat, which makes getting comfortable that bit easier and they also add the less-than-potent heated front seats and steering wheel.

The advantages of the Grandland X's SUV body are plain to see when you get in the back because there's room for tall adults in the rear even if there are adults of a similar height sitting up front and, even with the space-eating panoramic roof fitted, there's no shortage of headroom. Sure, with three in the back it's a bit of a squeeze, but there's room in the footwells for everyone's feet and you won't feel as squashed as you do in a similarly sized hatchback. 

Passengers in the back also get their own air vents, as well as a 12V socket and USB socket, plus a centre armrest with two cupholders and a hatch to feed skis through from the boot. Meanwhile, you'll find two ISOFIX points for fitting child seats on the outer rear seats as well as on the front passenger seat. 

The boot is just as practical as the back seat. Wiggle your foot under the bumper (on top-of-the-range Elite Nav models) and the tailgate opens electrically – handy if your hands are full – to reveal a 514-litre load bay (390 litres in the hybrids) that is boxy, wide and easy-to-load despite a small lip. 

Folding the back seats is easy – you yank a couple of levers in the sides of the boot and the chairs fall down under their own weight to reveal a completely flat floor and a total capacity of 1652 litres (1528 litres in the hybrid). There's also a small storage space to hide valuables under the floor, which disappears if the optional £110 spare wheel has been specified.

In terms of smaller storage areas, the Vauxhall has plenty. All the doors have large pockets that can swallow bottles of water, there's a deep cubby under the front seat centre armrest – you'll find the wireless charging pad here in cars that have it – and there are two cup holders next to the gear stick. The only annoyance is the small glovebox, which is split in half by the fusebox in right-hand drive cars. 

If you're looking to fit the Vauxhall Grandland X into your garage, you'd be interested to note that it's 4477mm long, 1856mm wide (including door mirrors) and 1609mm high (including roof rails).

You can have your Vauxhall Grandland X with one petrol engine, one diesel engine and a choice of two hybrids, one of which has four-wheel drive.

The 130PS 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine may be the proverbial runt of the litter, but it never feels it. It accelerates the Vauxhall from 0-62mph in a nippy 9.5 seconds and it has enough mid-range surge to feel perfectly adequate in normal driving and it doesn't get obnoxiously noisy if you ask more of it. 

The six-speed manual gearbox's slick and light shifts mean you don't resent using it, which is good because steep hills on the motorway might require you to drop down a gear or two for overtakes, although the flip side of this is that the engine's barely ticking over at a cruise. All of which makes the eight-speed automatic seem like a needless extravagance. 

The 130PS 1.5-litre four-cylinder diesel is a tad slower than the petrol (0-62mph takes 10.2 seconds) which manifests itself in the engine's unwillingness to rev – it's all out of puff at 3750rpm, while the petrol gives maximum power at a comparably heady 5500rpm. As a result, we'd advise you leave the diesel unless you do lots of motorway miles where you'll see the benefit of its improved fuel economy. 

Or if you tow – the diesel will haul up to 1500kg compared to the 1400kg the petrol manages and the 1250kg the hybrids will shift. 

The hybrid models, meanwhile, come into their own if you have a short enough commute to get in and out of work on battery power alone. Both use a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that's boosted by an electric motor to produce 225PS (Hybrid) or 300PS (Hybrid4). Thanks to that extra power – and the additional traction of its four-wheel-drive system – the Hybrid4 gets from 0-62mph in just 5.9 seconds – almost three seconds quicker than the standard model. 

If you're looking for a family SUV that's quiet, then the Vauxhall Grandland X is one of the best. It will lollop along the motorway while barely breaking sweat – even the tiny petrol engine is well muted at a cruise – and there's not much wind noise to speak of save for a flutter around the wing mirrors. Tyre noise is also well contained except over poorly surfaced motorway sections: for best results, we'd avoid models with 19-inch wheels.

It's also a very quiet car in town and that's especially true of the hybrid models, which can clear city centres and suburbs running on all-but-silent electric power. That being said, the 130PS petrol model we tried did suffer from a very faint whine – like you were driving an old car in reverse – at slower speeds.  

The Vauxhall Grandland X scored five stars for safety when it was crash tested by Euro NCAP although it's worth noting that this was achieved under 2017's test conditions, which are far less stringent than they are today. 

Basic versions do without automatic emergency brakes and will be more likely to be involved in low-speed shunts as a result. However, they do get kit like auto-dipping headlights, lane departure warning and six airbags. 

Vauxhall Grandland X Business Edition models and above get the all-important automatic emergency brakes as well as kit like lane assist and attention assist, which warns you when you should take a break from driving. 

Vauxhall doesn't enjoy the best reliability record, although that is partly because of the huge numbers of cars it sells. It's inevitable that some will go wrong, but it's probably fair to say that an equivalent Hyundai or Toyota will likely be more dependable.

The 1.2-litre petrol engine did have some early issues, while electrical gremlins aren't unheard of. As is often the case, it's worth avoiding the diesel unless you cover enough miles to keep the DPF (diesel particulate filter) clear of blockages.

The Vauxhall Grandland X ranges from Group 12E insurance for a low-spec fitted with the 130PS petrol engine to 32E for an Ultimate Hybrid4 with all the kit. That's due to its complex technology and, of course, because it has plenty of performance courtesy of its 300PS powertrain.

You won't have to worry about year-one VED tax costs on a Grandland X these days because you can't buy one brand new any more. In terms of annual road tax rates, you'll pay the same £180-per-year flat rate as you will on all petrol and diesel cars. That's unless you go for one of the plug-in hybrids, which qualify for the discount given to alternatively fuelled vehicles. However, this discount amounts to only a tenner. Also bear in mind that the plug-in hybrids are the most expensive versions, and in most cases, the orginal list prices of plug-in versions would have been upwards of £40,000, which means that they're liable for the 'luxury car' surcharge. That means paying an additional £390 on top of the regular £170 annual charge until the car is more than six years old.

The trim levels available with the Vauxhall Grandland X chopped and changed a bit over the car's life, and when you include special editions, there were no fewer than 15 in total, confusing when you're trying to make sense of them and choose between them. Allow us to help.

With early cars, SE was the entry-level trim, and this came reasonably well equipped with kit like dual-zone climate control – with individual settings for the driver and front passenger – cruise control, a leather-trimmed steering wheel, auto-dipping LED headlights, rear parking sensors and automatic wipers, although the lack of automatic emergency brakes is a glaring omission. Front foglights and 17-inch alloy wheels mean it looks smart on the outside. 

Then came Design Line cars, which added front parking sensors and a moveable boot floor as well as a host of interior and exterior styling upgrades, including larger 18-inch alloys. Tech Line Nav trim was the fleet-focused option, and came with even more kit than the Design Line but for a lower price (you couldn't get the sizeable discount on this one that you could on the rest of the range. It makes a cracking used buy as a result. It came with the upgraded infotainment system, plus automatic emergency brakes and a blind spot assistant.

Sport Nav cars added some raier design touches, while Elite Nav added leather upholstery, heated front seats, powered driver's seat adjustment, a heated windscreen and a panoramic roof. Range-topping Ultimate trim added a premium sound system, heated rear seats, adaptive cruise control, keyless entry, a powered tailgate and 360-degree cameras.

Later on, the entry-level trim became SE Premium and was broadly similar to the previous Design Line trim. Tech Line Nav,became known as Business Edition Nav, while Sport Nav became SRi Nav, while Elite Nav and Ultimate trims remained. Aside from a few minor alterations, kit levels remained broadly similar to before.