Normally, a passenger van like the Vivaro would go by unnoticed at an event like the Frankfurt motor show, but Opel’s Surf Up Concept managed to draw a few glances with its outlandish styling.
This version was supposedly built for beach getaways, but take out the special brackets on the roof that hold a pair of surfboards, and what you have is Opel’s upcoming, leisure-oriented Vivaro passenger model.
Depending on the seating configuration, the Vivaro can seat five to six passengers who have plenty of room for themselves and their luggage – or wait, scratch that; they have a boatload of space for their belongings, as the enclosed cargo area is 3,200 liters or 113 cu.ft for the regular wheelbase model and 4,000 liters or 141 cu.ft. for the long model with a total permissible weight of up to 2.9 tons!
“The Vivaro Surf Concept is the ideal vehicle for large families or groups of friends,” said Steffen Raschig, Opel/Vauxhall Director Commercial Vehicles. “The close-to-production concept offers space for up to six passengers with its CrewCab. There is a large cargo area with numerous practical details behind the second row of seats.”
To make it look a little less like the vans that bring your online orders home, Opel gave the concept a funky two-tone color, Irmscher wheels, LED daytime running lights and a leather interior.
It runs on a 1.6-liter BiTurbo diesel engine producing 140PS (138hp) and 340 Nm (251 lb-ft), good for returning a top speed of 180 km/h (112mph) and a combined economy of 6.1l/100km (38.6mpg US / 46.3mpg UK) with CO2 emissions of 160g/km. It also comes equipped with an air suspension that reduces vehicle height to 1.90 meters so it can access most multi-storey car parks without hitting its head.
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