4x4 Mag - Short Term Road Test- Vauxhall Frontera 2.5 TDS

Short Term Road Test

Vauxhall Frontera 2.5 TDS

It's been great so far writing for this magazine, every couple of weeks I get to live with and drive a different 4x4. The neighbour's can't get over my new found affluence, jokes about changing the car once the ashtray is full have abounded. However, in reality it's hard work, and especially this month when I heard that I was to have a FRONTERA ... these have never been high on my list of "car's I must drive" and I approached this subject with a rather unprofessional lack of enthusiasm. Or was it, for my scepticism was a realistic detached viewpoint that may be shared by some of you reading this article who remember that the Frontera did not fair well with the buying public when first released.

The FRONTERA was mainly plagued by reliability problems, and the occasional part falling off. At one time this vehicle even had a BBC "Watchdog" program all to itself, showing owners returning the vehicle to the factory very disgruntled. I followed along with the general opinion that this was a car to avoid, well how wrong could we all be. Early cars may have had problems, but Vauxhall seem to have certainly sorted them out now. This FRONTERA was without a doubt one of the best all-round 4x4s I have ever had the opportunity to drive !

For the record we're talking about a 1998 Frontera 2.5 TDS short wheelbase. This model has none of the usual extras found in large 4x4’s, no electric goodies or extras, no alloy wheels, just good old central locking (more of which later). On first seeing the car absolutelyI hated it ... the colour was metallic gold and this seemed to make the rather slab sided looks of the car even worse, with no graphics or decals to break up the very large c-pillar and doors. I will admit that I have never been a fan of the Frontera since it first appeared. Some of the top models looked very nice with all of the extras, but some how they just never seemed like a real 4x4 to me, more of a large family car that just happened to have a 4 wheel drive system. The short wheel base version looked even worse than it’s larger sister in my eyes, and I always thought that I would never own one of these cars.

During the test I used the car mainly for work purposes during the week, motorway travel, short runs and lots of towing. At weekends the Frontera obliged by towing my Suzuki to 4x4 events, and even venturing off road a bit itself. It never once missed a beat or let me down. And it never once disappointed me. In fact, this car did nothing but surprise me.

As a family car, the short wheelbase is not the ideal choice. Access through the two very large doors is good for a two door model, in fact better than my usual G Wagen, with the front seats sliding forward as well as the seat backs folding the kids had no trouble getting in and out. Room inside both front and rear is suprisingly good. Even adults would have found the space in the back comfortable, with plenty of legroom. Boot space is a little lacking, but again no worse than other cars in the same class.

Ride comfort in the Vauxhall was very good. Although not the quietest of engines, the car remained fairly refined once on the move, and it soaked up the rough surfaced Lancashire roads with no problems. None of the family ever complained about the ride in this car. They didn’t compliment it either. To them the rather utilitarian specification of no electric windows, mirrors or anything else made the car seem a little basic, but these things are not essential, and bearing in mind the original cost of the car, I felt that the interior was of a good standard.

Rearward vision was not the best I have sampled. The spare wheel mounted high on the rear door hindered the view, and the huge c-pillars made seeing at some junctions practically impossible without the assistance of pedestrians with mirrors. The exterior mirrors were also a little small, probably more suited to a small saloon car than a large 4x4.

The overall performance was the most suprising thing of all. With only a 2.5 Turbo Diesel (of VM manufacture) under the bonnet I would have expected the Frontera to be a little bit sluggish, but in reality this was not the case. This car pulled like a train! The turbo seemed to be on boost from tickover to max revs. The throttle was very sensitive, and at times if the road was damp, pulling away without causing wheel spin was difficult. In traffic there was no problem keeping up with other cars. The acceleration was excellent, and at times I think that it may have surprised other road users who expected this large 4x4 to crawl away from the lights. On the Motorway I found that I had to keep an eye on the speed, as this car just wanted to go faster all the time. 70 MPH motorway cruising was easy, and the engine was quite refined at this speed always slightly nudging the speedometer up towarsd the 85 MPH mark. Wind noise was low, and so combined with the fairly quiet motor, this was an excellent Motorway car. A recent 500-mile round trip in the same day was covered easily, and in comfort, no backache, and no stress.

As a tow vehicle, I found it difficult to fault. The torque available was superb, and the spacing of the gear ratios seemed to suit a towing application. My usual weekend load of Suzuki off roader on my single axle trailer presented no problem whatsoever to the Frontera. In fact, on the climb up the M62 from Rochdale heading over the Pennines for Leeds the Frontera managed to hold a steady 70MPH in 5^th gear, whereas my G Wagen and the Trooper I owned before that would have both been down to 3^rd. Once at the top of the big hill, I found it difficult to hold the car back, and at times found myself cruising at 80MPH without meaning to! It was a good job my trailer (A Viking Trailers special) was a steady unit. The combination of this car and steady trailer made it easy to forget that I was towing at all.

As a working vehicle during the week, I asked a lot of the Frontera. Trailer loads may have exceeded the manufacturers recommendations, but the car never once complained, taking the work well within its stride. The brakes could only be described as excellent, with no incidence of brake fade or sponginess. The handbrake held the car and it’s trailer load easily on all inclines that I tried it on. This came as a bit of a suprise, as I suspected that the braking system was probably borrowed from the Isuzu range of cars, and the Trooper that I had owned previously had the worst handbrake I had ever come across.

The 4-wheel drive system is basically borrowed from the early Isuzu Troopers. The car is in 2-wheel drive most of the time, and 4 wheel is selected via a small lever close to the main gear lever. With automatic freewheeling front hubs, this meant that to get into 4-wheel drive, all the driver has to do is stop the vehicle, move the selector lever and then pull away again. The same lever selected low ratio as well. This meant that the car couldn’t be used in low ratio on dry tarmac, for example when a trailer load was too heavy, as selecting 4 wheel drive locked the center diff straightway. But I didn’t come across a trailer load that the Frontera wouldn’t tow easily in 2-wheel drive, thanks to its brilliant engine.

Some things about the car were a little bit annoying. The central locking didn’t operate on the boot door, meaning that most of the time I forgot to lock the boot at all, and the car spent most nights insecure, except for the standard alarm system. This alarm system was also one of the let downs of the car. Locking the driver’s door activated the alarm, and a flash of the hazard lights let you know that the alarm was armed. Should you, however, lock the car from the passenger side door, then the alarm would not activate. This combined with the none centrally locked boot door meant that at times I had left the car virtually unlocked, and without an alarm. Surely a system which Vauxhall could improve in this age of high car theft. When the alarm did sound, unfortunately it was only the standard horn, and I doubt that it would have raised much interest compared with a shrill siren type alarm, I know that I didn’t hear it from inside my own house.

To disarm the alarm, all you had to do was unlock the drivers door and place the keys in the ignition in less than about 30 seconds. Great idea unless of course you just wanted to grab something from the passenger side or even the boot. I lost count of the amount of times I unlocked the passenger door, grabbed my flask, locked the door again and headed for the house, only to hear the alarm go off a minute later because I had forgotten to put the keys in the ignition to disarm the alarm first! This meant that to get something from in the boot, you first had to unlock the drivers’ door, put the keys in the ignition and turn them to the first position. Wait for the hazard warning lights to flash, take the keys back out and then go and unlock the boot door, get your item, lock the boot door and then lock the drivers’ door. Not the best of designs!

We even found that after unlocking the drivers door, the alarm didn’t leave enough time to load the kids into the back seats, get into the drivers seat and put the keys in the ignition, before it started going off. Quite often at the supermarket I think that passers by thought we must be stealing the car, as the horn was sounding constantly as we got the kids strapped in, and then eventually put the keys in the ignition.

On the whole I liked the Frontera. Yes, I would recommend one. Yes, I would own one. It was one of those cars that was just good at almost everything. It did what you wanted, and never let you down. I’m not saying that I would have one in place of my G Wagen, no way. But as a fairly priced 4x4 car with good all-round ability I don’t think you could beat this car. Out of the cars (1998 Landcruiser VX, 1998 Discovery TDI, and Frontera) I have experienced over the last two Months, this car came in as my second favourite, with the big Landcruiser coming top. It doesn’t take a genius to work out which car came last, and was the biggest disappointment of all, but more about that next month.