Opel/Vauxhall Zafira Owner's Manual

About The Zafira

To join in with the recent new wave of compact MPVs being built on normal compact car chassis’s Opel/Vauxhall introduced their Zafira.

Renault had already shown the world what was possible when they took the Megane chassis and created what is arguably the first compact MPV the Scenic in 1996.

Opel achieved their own version of this car by taking their popular Astra chassis and adding a taller body, filling the inside with practical features also.

With the help of performance brand Porsche, they designed the Zafira to be an exciting addition to the market and even offered a sports trim.

The GSi Turbo version of the car boasts a turbocharged 2-liter engine tuned by Opel to produce 189bhp and reach 60mph in 7.4 seconds.

This cast the special edition (of which only around 1,000 were produced by Vauxhall each year) into its own new niche of the market thanks to its 7-seats and sporty performance.

It was sold all over the world thanks to its success in Europe with Subaru selling a version of the car in Japan called the Traviq.

Second Generation Zafira

In 2005 Opel introduced the new breed of Zafira to the market based on the newer Astra chassis, a year later it was launched in Chile and Mexico as the Chevrolet Zafira.

Mexico saw poor sales and so just after a year, the car was replaced by the more successful (in the Americas) Chevrolet HHR.

By 2010 the popularity of the Zafira in Europe seems to have fizzled out, partly because of consumer tastes moving towards crossover SUVs and partly because of the recently updated VW Touran.

Third Generation Zafira

To combat the loss of sales the last generation Zafira was experiencing the designers at Opel decided to rebrand the model in 2011.

This 3rd generation model was now known as the Zafira Tourer and was larger although still based on the current Astra chassis.

It sold alongside the old version of the car for 3 years until the second-generation version was discontinued to act as a small/large option for customers.

Inside the new car was a wealth of new features and technology to keep up with the VW Touran and the growing number of crossover SUVs.

Drivers were aided by adaptive LED headlights, a camera in the front of the car, traffic sign assist and forward collision alert systems.

In 2019 the final few left-hand drive models were sold by the company after the right-hand drive version had sold out the year before.