2014 Vauxhall Meriva facelift gets new diesel engine

Vauxhall has give their Ford C-Max rival – the Vauxhall Meriva – a bit of a facelift for 2014 and introduced a new diesel engine.

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It’s more than three years since the Vauxhall Meriva arrived – at Geneva in 2010 – as Vauxhall’s compact people carrier, so it’s time for a bit of a titivate and a few updates.

The cosmetic makeover for the 2014 MY Meriva isn’t huge, but Vauxhall has thrown in a new grill and new headlights to fulfil the ‘new nose’ requirements of a facelift, there’s new alloys and new alloy options and daytime running lights.

But the biggest change comes under the skin, with the old 1.7 litre turbo diesel being supplanted by the new 1.6 litre from the Zafira which offers 134bhp and 236lb/ft of torque.

The power and torque are up a smidge on the old 1.7 litre, but the big change is in economy with the new engine offering official economy of 64.2mpg – 20 per cent more economical than the old engine.

Even though the power on offer is only slighyly more, the new 1.6 lkitre diesel is a bit quicker than the old engine, with 0-62mph cut to 9.1 seconds – almost a second quicker.

The 2014 Vauxhall Meriva facelift goes on sale later this month with prices still to be revealed.