Meriva that meriva! (Vauxhall Meriva Life 1.6 8v)

Member Name: rawwrjem

Product:	Vauxhall Meriva Life 1.6 8v
Date:	28/06/09 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: reliable safe and lovely and comfortable

Disadvantages: small glove box

After leaving my husband with my daughter, money was incredibly tight and we went from a ew renault laguna to a banged up knightsbridge metro. After a few years, we managed to afford a corsa and after I had my son, I realised I needed a bigger car. One day, I had to take my corsa into the garage and had a meriva curtesy car and fell in love with it. I didn't want to fetch my car back after that. I decided then that I wanted a meriva, but it was a dream, I couldn't afford one.

I went to the vauxhall garage in great bridge and looked at them. I really liked the meriva design which costs around £15,000. That one had two sun-roofs, trays on the back of the front seats which would be ideal for my son, a light in the back for him and other nice additions to it. I knew I wouldn't be able to afford that, even on finance so I had to look at used cars.

I found a car that I liked on finance. It was a blue/green coloured, 05 reg meriva life. It hadn't got the little additions that the design had, but it was beautful. The car had one previous owner and had been a disability car with just 7400 miles when I got it. I was told that it would cost me £110 a month for five years but after bartering and moaning, I got it for £90 a month with 6 months free tax. I couldn't have been more pleased. It's really interesting, because from some angles in the light, my car looks blue but in others, it looks green.

When I picked up the car, I was like an excited child and couldn't wait. I got in and was overwhelmed thinking WOW! It has so much space. It is a lot bigger than the corsa that I had with more leg room for my daughter and now my son doesn't kick the front seat. It has a CD player which is brilliant to play my music on with the kids. It also has a little tray underneath the CD player that you press and it comes out where you can keep your ciggies or money. I usually stick my change in there from shopping.

The boot on this car is brilliant. The 'floor' of the boot lifts up and the spare tyre is under there and you can put small things in there like a brolly and car sprays. The boot itself has a light so you can easily see inside and make you haven't dropped any shopping or anything. It has side compartments which are great to keep your shopping bags in or other things like your WD40 spray. The boot is large, very spacious and I keep a puschair in there and still can fill it with about 8 bags of shopping. The parcel shelf folds so you can completely fill the boot to the top.

The car has got power steering, so manouvering it is very easy. It is really easy to drive despite being bigger and it is really smooth. It is mroe comfortable than the corsa because the chair is bigger and I have much more space to move. The car has good visibilty making parking easy, the back window is really large so reversing isn't hard and the mirrors are positioned in a good place so I have a lot of visibilty when driving.

I usually put £10 a week which lasts me easily despite school run, shopping, visiting and other general car use. I am yet to have filled the tank because I haven't been away in it yet, but I go on holiday in July and will be driving, so I'll update the review and tell you how much it cost to fill the tank.

The meriva comes in a variety of colours, mostly silvers light and dark, a dark red, gold, dark blue and light blue and black. I have seen one or two purple ones and a greeny blue one that is mine, but not many. My car doesn't have alloy wheels, I have wheel trims.

I always fold the wing mirrors in because someone knocked one of my corsa ones off. My daughter folded hers in when we came home one night and she did it too hard and the glass dropped out and smashed. I went to the nearest bulldog and managed to get a new one for £5 so I do think that because vauxhall is such a popular car brand, getting the parts for it is really easy and isn't something to worry about.

I feel very safe in the car with my children, the car has an airbag for me and a passenger airbag which meant my son couldn't sit in the front but that wasn't a problem because my daughter prefers to sit in the front and he isn't bothered where he sits as long as he has his dinosaurs with him. The car also has ABS which I haven't had any use for, but it is reassuring to know that in an event, I would be able to stop efficiently.

I like the radio style in the car, it isn't like the older corsa, you turn it on with a big round dial and turn it up and down with that. I do kind of miss a tape player because I have a lot of tapes being old fashioned, but my daughter has made me some CDs for the car.

The seats are very adjustable and can be moved right backwards and forwards, although when right back, you can't reach the steering wheel so I'm guessing that is for much taller people. You can pull the head rest up and down or completely off which my daughter often does so she can talk to my son in the back of the car. The back seats fold completely flat makin the back of the car like a big van. When my mom recently moved into a new flat, I took all the laminate flooring up from three rooms and I managed to get most of it in my car and only had to make two trips, it was brilliant. Unlike the corsa, you can fold one, two or all three seats so someone can still sit in the back if you need a little more space but not much more.

In the back of the car, the middle seat has a seatbelt that comes from the roof, not just one to go around the stomach so that offers more comfort and protection of a third person sitting in the back although it's rare for more than two people to be in the rear of my car.

The glove compartment in the meriva is really small, smaller than the corsa which I thought was a bit weird and I do miss that bit of space because I used to keep things like tissues in there and I'd put my purse and phone in there which I can't do anymore. It seems bizzare that a bigger car would have a smaller glove box than a smaller one but still.

Both passenger and driver sides have a pull down sun-screen. You slide open the little 'door' on it and there is a mirror and there is a little pouch on the drivers side where you could keep papers or something like a disabled badge.

In the back of the car, there is another one of the cigerette lighters so someone in the back can charge their game or phone. They don't put the actual cigerette lighter in the car anymore yet my corsa had one. I don't really see the need for it to be fair because I don't smoke in the car anyway, but if you are carrying cigerettes, there's a good chance you will be carrying a lighter too.

In the 11 months that I have had the car, I have never broke down or had difficulty in starting it which gives me a lot of confidence about driving further away from home because the last thing I need is to be driving down the motorway with two kids and to break down. It is definitely very reliable.

The insurance on the car cost me £360 for the year and the tax was £170 for 12 months, which I did struggle with a little bit but wasn't too expensive. According to the garage, it is in Band B for the insurance whatever that means?

Overall, this car is great. I feel a lot more comfortable and safe driving and my kids love having the extra room. I have more room for shopping and the puschair so it has definitely served its purpose as a brilliant family car to us. When my son is in school I'll be working again and am saving to get a new meriva because I'm so pleased with it but would like a brand new one. Thanks you vauxhall!

Summary: I love this car so much! best thing Ive ever bought.

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