On the road
At the launch event, we focused on the 1.2-litre 110hp petrol unit, which is expected to take the most sales, and the 120hp diesel. And the diesel won – it felt more enthusiastic than its petrol sibling, and weirdly significantly quieter and more refined. A lot of road noise filtered into the cabin on our drive with the petrol, with the culprit possibly the five-speed transmission’s demand for lots of revs at speed. This gearbox was somewhat notchy too, with vague shifts that were easy to miss.
On the road, the Crossland X is – you guessed it, practical, without getting exciting. It’s soft and woolly in the corners, the steering giving inadequate feedback as the body happily leans into each bend, while hit a poor surface and the suspension lets you know. But at slower speeds, such as might be the norm with the car’s young parent target market doing the school run, and it behaves perfectly sensibly.
Equipment
That priority of practicality shows in the specifications. Five trim levels are available, and all are well equipped – entry-level SE models include climate control, leather on the steering wheel, and a seven-inch colour touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.
Vauxhall’s widely admired OnStar assistance system is standard too, offering automatic alerting of emergency services if it senses the car has crashed, a wi-fi hotspot, linking to a smartphone app and tracking of the car if it is stolen.
Safety also scores highly – depending on model the package can extend to a 180-degree panoramic rear-view camera, park assist, forward collision alert with pedestrian detection and autonomous emergency braking, lane departure warning, traffic sign recognition and a side blind-spot alert. At time of writing, the Crossland X had not yet been crash tested by Euro NCAP.
Next page: Summary and specifications
