Should you buy one?

There’s no escaping that Vauxhall’s latest van-based people carrier has a few compromises and even in range-topping Elite guise isn’t as plush and sophisticated as the Mercedes-Benz V-Class and Volkswagen Caravelle, but that’s not to say it’s not without merit.

Certainly, it costs significantly less than that pair, which would cost at least £60,000 to bring them up to a comparable specification.

Instead, the Vivaro Life occupies a corner of the market where the V-Class and Caravelle are too expensive, but more conventional MPVs, such as Ford’s Galaxy and Volkswagen’s Sharan, just don’t offer the space for seven passengers and copious amounts of luggage. It’s much closer to those two price-wise anyway, and you get a lot more metal for your money.

Unless you need eight seats, our pick is the top-of-the-range Elite with the 180hp engine and the option of the two individual captain’s chairs for row two. In our experience the fold-up table isn’t engineered well enough to justify having, but the Driver Safety Pack and Driver Assistance Pack are worthwhile.

Is the Vauxhall materially any better than the near-identical Citroen SpaceTourer, Peugeot Traveller and Toyota Proace Verso? Not at all – essentially which you go for will come down to how close you are to one of the dealers and what price you can negotiate down to.

Further reading:

• Fancy a smaller van-based Vauxhall? Read our Combo Life review
• Striking looks for Vauxhall’s all-new Mokka – what do we know so far?
• Find out how much your old car’s worth with Parkers’ valuation service