Vauxhall Agila 1.2 (2008) CAR review

Gone is the felled phonebox look of the old Agila. Here is the newest, smallest member of Vauxhall’s ‘monocab’ family, slotting below the Meriva and Zafira and offering a budget-conscious, utility-focused baby sibling to the Corsa. But haven’t we seen it before?

I thought the Agila looked familiar…

Certainly does. That’s because the new Agila is really a rebadged Suzuki Splash. Sheet metal changes are limited to the re-profiled bonnet, plus there are different bumpers and lamps front and rear. It’s basically the same inside too, although the Vauxhall gains brighter plastic hues for the dashboard – extremely bright in the case of CAR’s blue test car.

And under the bonnet?

Vauxhall is claiming two brand new powertrains for the Agila and, fair enough, the 1.0-litre three cylinder and the 1.2-litre four are new to Vauxhall. Yep, you guessed it, they’re Suzuki engines, competitive in terms of power output (64bhp and 85bhp respectively) and CO2 – especially the 1.0, at 120g/km.

The 1.3 CDTi matches it for emissions, and that’s the familiar 74bhp diesel engine from the Corsa and Meriva. But diesel-powered city-cars make little sense in Britain, and the 1.2 petrol (131g/km) is expected to be the biggest seller. Vauxhall charges a £1600 premium for burning oil, which would take quite a few miles to pay off at 62.8mpg, when the 1.2 manages 51.4mpg. The thrifty 1.0-litre splits the two on fuel efficiency at 56.5mpg.