The cabin of the Captiva has some neat individual design touches, but is nowhere near as appealing as that of its key rival, the Freelander. Where the Land Rover feels like a genuinely class act inside, there’s a touch of blandness to the Captiva’s cabin. On the lesser models Chevrolet will get away with this, but on the £24k LTX it’s harder to forgive.
The main culprits are the rather flat and featureless front seats, the plastics used to trim the dashboard and centre console, the plain styling of the instrument cluster.
On the plus side, there’s acres of space in the rear seats proper; two six-footers can easily sit in front of and behind one another. Storage space has also been reasonably well accounted for with a huge glove box, deep door bins, high-quality cup holders (front and rear) and an equally vast centre console cubby.
The extra pair of occasional rear seats, which appear from beneath the boot floor in a similar style to those of the Vauxhall Zafira, also have Isofix attachments for child seats.
The goodie count is high for the money, with items such as cruise control, leather seats, 18in wheels and climate control all appearing as standard. But the Captiva’s extra kit fails to compensate for its bargain-basement personality against high-grade rivals such as the Freelander 2.
At the moment Chevrolet is still an emerging brand in the UK, which is both a good and a bad thing. It’s good because it means Chevrolet has to try to offer the customer more for less in an attempt to establish itself as a player in the market; basically you get lots of car for the money.
It’s bad because in terms of depreciation the market rarely trusts an unknown name, especially when it comes from America. Having said that, the entire operation is based out of Luton, which means the after-sales is strong and the warranty is attractive. Quality control appears to be strong as well, if the test car is anything to go by, so all the signs – at the moment – look good.
Fuel consumption on the test car ranged from 17-28mpg with an average of 24.5mpg.