2011 Opel Meriva AKA Vauxhall Meriva Unveiled

Unique-in-class FlexDoors offer unrivalled occupant access and convenience
FlexRail and FlexSpace features alter newborn levels of cabin versatility to class
Fuel consumption reduced by 15% vs current range; ecoFLEX version to be offered

Luton – These are the prototypal official pictures of Vauxhall’s newborn Meriva, which is set to invoke the conventional concept of family-car usability on its head with a compounding of clever, rear-hinged backwards doors which radically improve access/egress, and a float of unique cabin features that boost interior versatility.
The newborn Meriva, which will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March this year, is the prototypal Vauxhall to feature FlexDoors, showcased in 2008’s Meriva organisation concept.

FlexDoors are rear-hinged backwards doors which swing open towards the backwards of the car at an angle of nearly 90 degrees, vastly rising the assist with which occupants start and leave the cabin. Rather than having to step back, or to digit side, as digit would using a normal front-hinged door, the FlexDoor allows unimpeded forward access/egress to and from the cabin, enhanced boost by the Meriva’s exceptionally high roof line.

For parents with children, there are further benefits. Due to the larger door inaugural and free space around the B-pillar, parents can lift small children forwards in to rear-mounted, second-stage child seats without having to contort themselves around a door. And with both the face and rear doors unstoppered (the fronts unstoppered at a similar seek to the rear FlexDoors) a ‘parent-friendly’ zone is created with no door barrier between face and rear occupants.

Crucially, the FlexDoors can only be opened by occupants while the car is stationary, an semiautomatic lock engaging as presently as the car pulls away.

While the concept of digit rear-hinged backwards doors is not newborn in the motor industry, the Meriva’s FlexDoor grouping is the first instance it has been used on a family car in recent years. But unlike another rear-hinged door applications (Rolls Royce Phantom/Ghost and Mazda RX8), the Meriva benefits from face and rear doors that unstoppered independently, and does not require rear passengers to sit behindhand the door opening.

Class-leading in-cabin flexibility

Once inside the newborn Meriva, buyers benefit from two further groundbreaking innovations. The FlexRail adopts a completely firm approach to the design of a car’s centre console, and provides owners with a variety of modular hardware and comfort solutions that fix on to an ingenious dual-rail base. The newborn Meriva’s hardware bin and cubby calculate has also increased, meaning that owners today benefit from digit of the most practical cabins in class.

In addition, the current Meriva’s much-praised FlexSpace grouping has evolved with even greater practicality. Now more intuitive to use, the newborn Meriva’s FlexSpace allows easier fold-down of the side seats, while moving the side seats to create more boot, handicap or shoulder shack is simpler than ever.

The newborn Meriva’s seat comfort has also advanced, with the adoption of front seat technology from the Insignia and Astra. Like these cars, the Meriva offers the large arrange of seat adjustment in class, extending to 240mm in length and 65mm in height.

New Meriva adopts organisation module from Insignia and new Astra

The current Meriva effectively created the auto monocab sector when it was launched in 2003, but since then Vauxhall’s organisation module has evolved steadily, with bounteous strides being made with the European Car of the Year-winning Insignia and more recently with the start of the all-new Astra.
No surprise, then, that the new Meriva has adopted a more expressive and impulsive silhouette to its basic cab-forward monocab design. Like the Insignia and Astra, a ‘blade’ features down the side of the body, complementing a window line with a distinct ‘wave’ accentuating the FlexDoors, allowing broad views for rear passengers.

The organisation theme continues in the Meriva’s cabin, with cues taken from the Insignia and Astra enhancing the perceived quality of the materials.

Advanced chassis and more efficient powertrains
With a longer wheelbase and wider front and rear tracks, buyers will wager a marked improvement in the new Meriva’s mate and direction qualities.
They’ll also wager a change in streaming costs, since the engine line-up – which features six turbocharged units and power outputs from 75 to 140PS – benefits from an cipher render consumption/CO2 change of 15 per cent, or -25g/km across the range. A high mpg/low dioxide ecoFLEX model will also be available.
More aggregation will be acquirable closer to the Meriva’s entry at Geneva.