By Amanda Mfuphi

Diesel engines have been a permanent feature in the South African passenger vehicle market and South Africans particularly appreciate and admire them for, amongst other things, their frugality when it comes to fuel consumption. Late last year, Opel sought to appeal to diesel lovers in the crossover segment of the market by introducing the diesel version of its Crossland X crossover, which joined the 1.2 litre petrol models that were launched in South Africa in 2017. We recently got the opportunity to explore the Crossland X 1.6TD Enjoy Manual and we were impressed with the ride quality, fuel consumption, space and comfort levels of the Crossland X.

Exterior

The Crossland X has similar dimensions to the Peugeot 2008 as it is based on the same platform. The Crossland X has rounded lines from the rear that make their way to the front part of the vehicle. On approach, the car has a tall posture and with ride height standing at 124mm, gives the driver a higher riding position. Adding to the appeal, our test Crossland X came in a two-tone colour comprised of a predominately white body panel and black roof and bumpers. Completing the exterior look were daytime running lights and 16-inch wheels.

Interior

From the outside, the Crossland X seems smaller than it actually is but stepping inside the vehicle you are confronted by a generously sized interior cabin that is enough for a young family considering a crossover vehicle. The Crossland X has good headroom and legroom in front and at the. In terms of practicality, the Crossland X has a decent boot space of 410 litres and there are plenty of compartments for storing items. You will not run out of space for house keys, wallets, water bottles and other smaller items you may need to stow away during the drive.

Looking at the quality of the interior, it is clad with good looking plastic materials that are paired with cloth seats. Our test unit could have done with a bit of colour to liven it up as it was too dark with black on black plastic material offered with dark grey seat materials. That was soon forgotten though as the Crossland X comes with a decent Intellilink infotainment system with 6 speakers and a 7inch touchscreen. The infotainment system is Apple Car Play and Android Auto enabled. In addition, there is USB and Bluetooth connectivity. A 12V socket is offered for added charging capacity.

In terms of safety, the Crossland X has a 5-star Euro NCAP rating and it comes standard with 6 airbags, ABS, EBD, BAS, Traction Control, Stability Control, cruise control and Hill start assist, just to name a few standard features. In addition, our Crossland X came with tyre pressure monitoring, lane departure warning and blind spot detection to amplify the safety features of the vehicle.

The engine and drive

The Crossland X 1.6TD is powered by a 1.6 litre turbocharged diesel engine that produces 68kW of power and 230Nm of torque. The Crossland X 1.6TD is only offered with a 5-speed manual gearbox. Despite the relatively low power figures of the Crossland X diesel compared to the petrol model (81kW and 205Nm), we were impressed with the 1.6 turbodiesel engine as it delivered a sufficiently decent performance. We found the car to be responsive which helps when overtaking and exploiting the odd gap in traffic. Being diesel powered, we found the engine to be on the nosier side, but it was not distracting as the cabin manages to absorb the noise quite well. Although we enjoyed driving the Crossland X 1.6TD manual transmission, we do think Opel should also consider an automatic transmission for the diesel model as well as it will give the car broad appeal. We found the ride quality to be good but after a long trip, we found that the seats could do with a bit of additional padding. We also found the Crossland X diesel to be quite frugal, it gave us an average fuel consumption of 5.6L/100km during its stay with us, though the bulk of our driving was done in the city.

Overall, we think the Crossland X diesel offers a good value proposition based on the spec, pricing, practicality, performance and fuel consumption. The Crossland X does not necessarily turn heads, but it looks good.

Price

The Opel Crossland X 1.6TD Enjoy Manual is priced at R348,450. The price includes a 3 year/120,000km warranty and 3 year/60,000km service plan. Service Intervals – 12 Months /15 000 km.