Vauxhall Crossland Review 2024

The Vauxhall Crossland is the perfect car for you if you want a small SUV that doesn’t have the look-at-me styling of other small SUVs such as the Nissan Juke and Peugeot 2008.

The Vauxhall Crossland feels roomy inside – particularly if you’re trading up from a small family car – with space for adults in the back, and a boot that’s easy to load and will swallow a few suitcases.  

Choose the 110PS petrol and you’ll also get nippy performance combined with cheap running costs. Sure, the Vauxhall Crossland isn’t going to have you grinning from ear to ear in corners and it’s not the quietest motorway cruiser, but it’s light controls do at least make it easy to drive in town.

If you want a car that does a job without making a fuss, the Vauxhall Crossland fits the bill so long as you avoid the basic non-turbo petrol engine. 

The engine to go for is the 110PS petrol.  Unlike the basic 83PS petrol, the 110PS is turbocharged, giving you a useful boost in performance, adding a sixth gear for quieter motorway cruising and also improving fuel economy. The 110PS model’s so cheap to run, it’s largely pointless choosing a diesel.

All models are well-equipped but we'd avoid the cheapest Vauxhall Crossland SE unless you're on a strict budget. Higher-spec models come with desirable features like parking sensors, larger alloy wheels and a sliding rear bench.

If you’re in the market for a small SUV, then you have no shortage of choices and one of the best is the Peugeot 2008 which has a striking design on the outside and an interior that looks and feels more stylish than you might expect from a car in this price bracket. 

Another swish alternative to the Vauxhall Crossland is the Nissan Juke, although it’s not as spacious inside as the Vauxhall, while the SEAT Arona is just as roomy as the Crossland but feels better built inside and is more comfortable to drive. There's also the very spacious Skoda Kamiq which represents incredible value for money, while the Ford Puma is the small SUV of choice for keen drivers.

Finally, if you’re looking for a small car with a great warranty, check out the Kia Stonic that comes with a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty that makes the Vauxhall’s three-year and 60,000-mile cover look a little stingy.

Quality and finish is another area that showcases the Vauxhall Crossland's deft ability to be average.

You get some soft-touch plastics on the doors and dashboard, but the quality spirals the lower you nose into the cabin. You’ll find plenty of hard and brittle plastic around your seat and the buttons on the centre console feel flimsy, you just don’t get the sense it’s as well built as the Peugeot 2008.

Higher-spec Vauxhall Crossland models get colourful dash coverings and door inserts which brighten up the cabin. The Ultimate Nav comes with Alcantara seat covers with leather-effect side bolsters, along with a smarter leather-covered steering wheel. It's better, but you're still not going to mistake the Crossland for a premium offering.

Even the most basic Vauxhall Crossland models feature a 7.0-inch infotainment system, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard. Higher spec models have a larger 8.0-inch touchscreen. Although sat-nav isn't standard, it's easy enough to link up your phone and use third-party apps like Google Maps or Waze instead. SRi Nav and Ultimate Nav models come with a slightly bigger eight-inch display, as well as navigation with European mapping.

Both systems are good to use, with fast responses to inputs and logical menu layouts. There's little to dislike about the Crossland's infotainment, really – it does the job with little fuss. Some drivers might prefer systems that aren't reliant on the touchscreen, though – the Mazda CX-3 has a rotary controller, for example, which is less distracting to use on the move.

The Vauxhall Crossland's driver’s seat has loads of adjustment, so you’ll easily get comfortable. If you want a height-adjustable passenger seat then you’ll need to purchase the optional ergonomic front seats which are 16-way adjustable, including electrical tilt and lumbar support. This option also adds a 12V socket behind the front seats and a covered storage compartment in the centre console.

There are worthwhile upgrades available for the back seat, too. The Versatility Pack (standard on SRi Nav, Elite Nav, and Ultimate models) adds back seats that move forwards and backwards on runners and also have adjustable backrests so your passengers can stretch out a bit on a long journey. It’s handy to have but not necessary because the seat is spacious with enough head and knee room for tall passengers so long as there’s no one tall sitting up front.

Getting a kid’s seat into place is a problem, though. The Vauxhall Crossland’s rear doors are small and they don’t open to 90-degrees for unrestricted access to the back seat, plus the ISOFIX points aren’t neatly hidden under plastic covers.

There’s better news on the Vauxhall Crossland's interior storage. Up front, you get large door pockets, a tray for your phone, two closable cubbies on the centre console, and two cupholders. That said, the glove box is small and so are the rear door pockets. 

The Vauxhall Crossland's 410-litre boot is big, though, and larger than you’ll find in rivals such as the Renault Captur. You can increase this to 520 litres with the Versatility Pack that lets you slide the back seats forward. Loading is easy because the boot lid leaves a large opening, although there’s a load lip you’ll have to lift heavy luggage over. 

The back seats fold 60:40 (or 40:20:40 with the Versatility Pack fitted) leaving you maximum boot space of 1255 litres, or enough to get an adult’s bicycle packed away without having to take the wheels off.

If you want to squeeze your Vauxhall Crossland into a garage, you'll be pleased to know that its dimensions are barely any bigger than the Corsa hatchback. It measures 4212mm long and 1976mm wide (including door mirrors), while it's 1605mm high (inclusive of roof rails).

The Vauxhall Crossland is available with a choice of three petrol and two diesel engines.

All three petrols are 1.2-litre three-cylinder engines. We’d avoid the basic 83PS version which does without a turbo and feels ponderous as a result. 

Your best bet is the 110PS turbocharged model which has useful performance at slow speeds and is quite smooth when worked hard. It gets from 0-62mph in 10.5 seconds – more than two seconds quicker than the 82hp version.

The 130PS petrol knocks an extra second of that 0-62mph time with a manual gearbox and gives the Vauxhall Crossland noticeably more punch for overtaking, but it’s noisier than the 110PS model.

We’d also avoid both diesels. They’re powered by a four-cylinder 1.5-litre engine with either 110 or 120PS but both are very noisy and not that much cheaper on fuel than the petrol cars. There was also, briefly, a 1.6 turbodiesel when the Crossland was first launched that's also slow and unrefined.

Avoid the basic 83PS petrol version of the Vauxhall Crossland as it only has a five-speed manual. Other engines get a six-speed manual gearbox with a tall top gear that helps make the car quieter on the motorway. That’s the idea, anyway, but you’ll find the diesels rattle and rumble even when you’re only pottering about in town. 

The turbo petrol models are pretty quiet and smooth considering they only have three cylinders. They sound sporty when you’re accelerating and fade into the background when you’re cruising on the motorway.

Unfortunately, the Crossland is not a quiet motorway cruiser. It suffers from plenty of wind noise both around the pillars at the windscreen and the wing mirrors. Road noise is also noticeable, particularly in models fitted with 17-inch alloy wheels (that's most of them).

One thing going in the Vauxhall Crossland’s favour is that all models come fitted with cruise control, so you can maintain a set cruising speed without having to keep your foot on the accelerator pedal.

The Vauxhall Crossland was awarded five stars when it was crash tested for safety by Euro NCAP.

It comes as standard with a lane-departure warning system that uses a camera mounted in the windscreen to sense when you’re drifting out of your lane at speeds of up to 37mph and sounds a buzzer to warn you.

Meanwhile, the Vauxhall Crossland’s traffic sign recognition system uses the same camera to read road signs and flash up information – such as the current speed limit – on to the infotainment screen between the dials in the instrument binnacle. It’s also worth noting that all models come with LED headlights as standard, which produce a more powerful bright-white light than standard filament bulbs.

Which makes it surprising that you don’t get automatic emergency braking as standard like you do in a SEAT Arona. It's an option available on all but SE models and can detect people as well as other vehicles, warning of an imminent collision and applying the brakes hard if you do nothing to avoid it. The sole Ultimate model in the line-up from late 2022-onwards has auto emergency braking included.

Specify the automatic emergency brakes and you also get a drowsiness detection system that monitors your driving and warns you to take a break when it detects you’re not cruising arrow straight in lane.

There aren't many common issues associated with the Vauxhall Crossland. That said, it ranks pretty poorly in the HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index. It scored an average rating of 7.71 out of 10 for reliability, which is only marginally better than the problematic old Vauxhall Meriva.

Parts should be relatively affordable, though, while most mechanics will be comfortable working on a Vauxhall Crossland.

Insurance is another cost that isn’t going to break the bank with the Vauxhall Crossland.

The 83PS petrol model is the cheapest of the lot, qualifying for group 8E insurance. Choose the 110PS model and the Vauxhall sits in insurance group 14E, while the 130PS version pushes into insurance group 17 or 18E for most trims and as high as 20 for the Ultimate model with automatic gearbox.

The diesel models fall into groups 16 or 17E depending on trim level.

Both of the Vauxhall Crossland Ultimate models that remain on sale fall into the £255 roa dtax bracket for the first year. After that, like all Crossland and the earlier Crossland X incarnation, they attract an annual road tax bill of £180.

Buying your Crossland as a company car? Then you’ll find BIK tax rates are affordable ranging from 31% (for the 110PS petrol) to 33% for the 130PS when selecting a brand new model.

The range starts with the Vauxhall Crossland SE which, actually, isn't that poorly equipped. Standard kit includes a seven-inch touchscreen media system (with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), air conditioning, LED headlights and snazzy 16-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels. The rain-sensitive wipers will switch on automatically, as will the automatic headlights. Hill-start assist will give you a hand when setting off on an incline, while speed sign recognition will remind you of the speed limit. Lane departure warning alerts you if you stray from your lane on the motorway, too.

As its name suggests, the Vauxhall Crossland SRi Nav model builds on the SE's specification with an eight-inch sat-nav system. It also gets dual-zone climate control, rear parking sensors and stylish ambient lighting. The ergonomic active front seats should provide a bit more support on long journeys, while the sliding rear seats aid versatility. It's a more stylish choice, too, with 17-inch alloy wheels, a contrast colour roof, silver roof rails, LED rear lights and tinted windows.

The Crossland Elite is a posher choice with heated front seats and steering wheel, while a driver's seat armrest helps you find a more comfortable seating position. There's some extra chrome around the windows, while a reversing camera is a desirable feature.

Topping the range is the Vauxhall Crossland Ultimate Nav. As well as the eight-inch sat-nav system, this features a wireless mobile phone charger and keyless entry/start. The interior trim is finished in Alcantara, and there's a fancy panoramic rear-view camera as standard.

At the end of 2022, Vauxhall rationalised all this to the single Ultimate trim, which has all of the spec of the Ultimate Nav as well as automatic emergency braking as standard.