A couple of weeks ago, before I headed back to work after maternity leave, our family plus my parents went on a week’s holiday to the Lake District. We booked a self-catering cottage with plenty of room for us all, plus some lovely views over Coniston Water.
The drive to the Lakes from where we live is just over two hours, so quite a bit of time in a car with two young children. Plus, the amount of things you need to take when you’re going on holiday with two small people is ridiculous. Things like the Sleepyhead pillow Frugal Baby sleeps in, enough clothes to open a shop, sterilising equipment, swimming things, outdoor clothes, wellies, Frugal Toddler’s balance bike and all of the usual bits and pieces. Of course, this all needs to be packed in the car ready to go!
Enter: the Vauxhall Crossland X.
I had the opportunity to review this car and knew that it would be perfect if we could have it for our week away, as it looked quite a bit bigger than our own car. Luckily Vauxhall had one available for the dates we were away. It was really straightforward as they dropped the car off at our house the day before we travelled, so we had plenty of time to get it packed up (with a lot of stuff!) and get used to the new system.
When it arrived at our house, it looked so much nicer than our car! The one we got to review was a lovely blue colour. It has all of the mod cons you expect on a newer car, such as air conditioning, electric windows and a built in sat-nav. It also had little extras, like the turbo boost (which took some getting used to) and the built in camera to help you with reversing and parking. These extras really made it a fab car to drive.
So, nothing like a two hour car journey to put a car through its paces! We managed to get all of our stuff packed up just in the boot, which was great. If we had been in our own car, I think Mr FC would have had a few things on his knee as we were driving but it all fit comfortably in the boot of the Crossland X. The turbo took a bit of getting used to, as soon as you put your foot down on the accelerator, it would start. I guess you’d get used to that if this was your car all of the time; our car doesn’t have a turbo so this was a nice extra. It was great once we got on the motorway as you could get up to the speed you wanted quite quickly. Then add in the cruise control and travelling along was very smooth.
That’s another noticeable thing about the Crossland X – how smooth the ride was. The engine was really quiet (we’d got a Petrol model) and you barely felt any of the bumps in the road, if at all. At one point we were driving along a newly surfaced road but even then, there wasn’t much disruption in terms of comfort. The car itself was also much easier to drive – it felt much lighter? The steering wheel was definitely easier to turn and barely needed any movement before the wheels turned. Again, driving it was a breeze.
The roads around the Lake District can be narrow and twisty, but these were no problem for the Crossland X. Although some other road users didn’t want to keep to their side of the road when it was a little narrow, the help of the sensor to tell me when I was getting close to the edge was really helpful. Although it was slightly overly cautious at times (beeping when I was near to a branch for example) this was also a great extra to have when we were driving on unknown roads.
A couple of nagging things whilst driving the Crossland X were; the sat nav, as we couldn’t work out how to just put a postcode into it to find a destination. We had to input almost a full address at times, so this wasn’t as usual as our own. But, I’m sure there must be a way to do this? There’s a whole book instruction manual in the car just for the media/sat nav system so I’m sure it would have been in there. But, as it only happened once we were all strapped in and ready to go, we didn’t have time to sit and look at the settings with two impatient children in the back!
The other thing was the position of the hand brake, especially if you had the driver’s arm rest down. It seemed slightly too close to the seat, though again, something you would quickly get used to. But, I’m being picky as it was hard to find things we didn’t like with the Crossland X!
In conclusion, the Vauxhall Crossland X is a lovely car to drive, and very much suited to busy families like ours. It had plenty of space, especially in the boot plus the back seats were spacious too, even with two child seats in there too. The drive was lovely and smooth and the cruise control was an added bonus. I only wish we could have kept the car, instead of handing it back! It must have been a great impression on Frugal Toddler as well, because he keeps asking where Mummy’s blue car has gone; the ultimate positive review if there ever was one.
The Vauxhall Crossland X was kindly loaned to us to review. All opinions and photographs are my own.
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Nice review though you’ve missed out essential information such as which model you drove (engine size, trim level etc) .. interesting findings and conclusions too, and pretty much the polar opposite of all the professional reviews so far.
What purchase strategy would you advocate, cost of ownership etc, of I wanted to own this vehicle bit still within the remit of a frugal lifestyle?
I don’t know the engine size of the car we borrowed – it’s the Elite version though. And what’s the matter of it being the opposite to professionals? I’m not a pro – just a family testing out a car! And there are various purchase options, should you wish to purchase one.
Thanks for the helpful reply.
What finance options would work best if I wanted to maintain a frugal lifestyle?
Am I best buying new or secondhand?
Can you find out about the engine size as the “turbo boost” sounds great.
Secondhand, in cash would be your best option, I think.
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