Opel (Vauxhall) Combo Life XL Camper
The Opel/Vauxhall Combo is basically a Berlingo with different trim. Citroen Berlingo is one of the most often converted cars for camping, so you could take the Combo too.
The Combo (and its similar cousins – Citroen Berlingo, Peugeot Partner, Renault Kangoo) is a good car for car camping, but not as good for general driving & comfort during long journeys. It’s not the longest MPV out there (although it’s one of the widest) but offers very good mileage and low maintenance costs. It’s also very well priced – there are plenty of used van or MPV versions to be found. It’s best suited to fill the role of your second car that you can rebuild for camping. If you want it as your main car, it’s good if your budget is low, but otherwise, you’re better off with one of the more comfy and reliable or bigger MPV in our DB.
NimbleCamper rating: 3.5/5
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Key information
| Body type | |
|---|---|
| Boot length (cm) | 223 |
| Boot height (cm) | 113 |
| Boot width [wheel arches] (cm) | 113 |
| Make | |
| Comfort rating | 1 |
| Consumption l/100km | 5.7 |
| Consumption MPG (UK) | 42 |
| Available in | |
| Engine type | |
| NimbleCamper rating (out of max 5) | |
| Average used price, GBP (2015) | 6755 |
| Boot door type |
- Folded seats boot length (cm): long 223 / standard 188
- EURO NCAP safety rating (2018) – 4/5
- ADAC rating (lower = better) – 2.6/5
Standard rating (not focused on car camping):
Whatcar.com rating: 4/5 • Autoexpress.co.uk rating: 3.5/5
Average rating: 3.8/5
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1 review for Opel (Vauxhall) Combo Life XL Camper
- Average used price, GBP (2015) – I use Carsite.co.uk‘s price aggregates from 2015 (or the nearest possible year if not available), or, if not found, from autoscout24.com. For new cars, I specify the closest possible match (i.e. if released this year, it’s the new price, if released two years ago, it’s the 2-years old price etc). It’s here to give you a benchmark comparison (- a like for like, an apple with an apple) of the value of each car and for filtering purposes. It’s not meant to be used as an accurate estimate of used car value – it is updated once a year, so make sure you know what the car should cost at the time of purchase if you decide to buy one.
- Boot dimensions – taken from various sources across the web, starting with official, supplemented with other reliable websites (like ridc.org.uk), supplemented by user-generated content – images of measurements from forums or social networks. It’s also used for filtering, comparison and to give you a good idea of the car’s suitability for camping.
- Comfort rating – a benchmark used to simplify the car’s comfort & driving score based on equipment, furnishings, handling, safety, and costs ratings from external sources like whatcar.com, carwow.co.uk, autocar.co.uk etc. It gives you an indication of whether the car will drive and feel like a van (low rating) or offer better interior & handling (higher rating). A simple van-like car, for example, a Renault Kangoo is 0.5, a well equipped and comfortable car like a Ford S-Max is a 2. No hard math behind it, just an indicator, f.e. 0.5= basic car that does the job, 1.5 = hey, that’s nice to have!, 2 = oooh, comfyyyy.
- Consumption – I take the average 2017 consumption or closest match from Fuelly.com, or if none is available, from other sources like honestjohn.co.uk. If there are not enough cars for a single year, an average for several years is calculated.
- NimbleCamper rating – a weighted score of boot length (45% weight), boot height (40%), consumption (10%) and comfort (5%). The logic of weighing length & height higher than consumption and comfort is – headroom is important when you sleep in the back of the car, so is the length. A comfy ride is a factor, but you can sleep in a big car that’s not that comfy, however, it’s much harder to camp/sleep in a comfy car that’s too small. Read more about the NimbleCamper rating and criteria here.
- a note for EVs (electric vehicles) – for consumption, I am using the Fuel Equivalent Consumption estimate by ev-database.org. It is usually much lower than combustion engines, giving EVs an advantage – which I think is fair. They do have a small disadvantage in terms of having to plan your trips around charging stations + longer waiting time, but that will get better over time. More charging stations, faster chargers and better batteries. Therefore I am not adjusting the calculation for EVs in any way.
- In short: a litre of petrol contains about 8.9 kWh of energy. If we divide the energy consumption of an EV by this (f.e. 16 kWh/100 km divided by 8.9 kWh/litre), we get equivalent fuel consumption of 1.8 l/100 km.
- EV stats – taken from ev-database.org
Lukas –
NimbleCamper rating: 3.5/5 – good size for camping, van-like feel (lower comfort), but low consumption too.