These are the latest and most revealing spy shots of the upcoming 2012 Opel Zafira minivan (to be sold under the Vauxhall brand in the UK), which will receive its world premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September before going on sale across Europe this fall.
The new Zafira was previewed in conceptual form at the Geneva Salon in March and will sit atop the Meriva in Opel’s MPV range rivaling the likes of Ford’s C-Max and Citroen’s Grand C4 Picasso.
From the looks of the lightly camouflaged test model, the Zafira has remained close to the Geneva concept car, with the most visible changes concerning the shape of the mirrors and the lower parts of the front and rear bumpers along with the reduced angle of the kink in the rear-side window.
The interior styling is expected to keep the basic lines of the concept with less extravagant materials and switchgear borrowed directly from the Astra series. There will also be a revised version of the current Zafira’s three-row flexible seating system that allows the middle row of seats to fold flat into the floor.
Being based on the same platform as the Astra, it comes to no surprise that the 7-seater minivan will offer a similar engine lineup with turbocharged gasoline and diesel units including Opel’s latest 1.4- and 1.6-liter Turbo petrols, aided by the company’s start/stop system for improved fuel efficiency. A high-performance OPC with a force-fed four-cylinder engine is also rumored to be in the cards.
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