The disguise continues to peel away from Vauxhall/Opel’s new Meriva. It’s the 2010 model we’ll see at next spring’s 2010 Geneva motor show – and we can now see some intriguing design details.
The side windowline has more kinks than Ray Davies (ahem) and GM has finally done away with the dummy door handles. Yes, the new Meriva will have trick suicide doors, and the rear doors now have the handles in the production ready area.
There are hints of Merc A- and B-class about the svelte mini-MPV shape (especially around the rear), and the Russelsheim designers have clearly attempted to improve the woeful forward visibility of today’s Meriva with larger quarterlights.
Are they benchmarking the new 2010 Meriva against a competition M3?
Ha! Nope, that’s just an E46 four-door M3 wannabe that’s been chavved up to the eyeballs in the background of our last spyshot in the gallery. Sadly, there are no plans for an OPC/VXR go-faster Meriva this time around.
Instead, the focus will be on bread-and-butter petrols and diesels, with plenty of low CO2 options and Ecoflex green specials. The new Meriva is based on the floorpan from GM’s small car range, including the latest iteration of the Corsa.