Chevrolet Lacetti - Business User's View : THE BUSINESS

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What Is It About Chevrolet's Lacetti That Makes It Appeal So Strongly To Business People Who Have To Spend Their Lives On The Road? Jonathan Crouch Has Been Finding Out At The Wheel

Life as a rep isn't so bad these days. The quality of the Little Chefs is better. There's the Birmingham Toll Road to make cross-country commuting more bearable. And the standard of the kind of medium range motor the fleet manager's likely to give you for the journey has changed beyond recognition.

Think back ten years - then ten years before that. Motorway marathons were things you psyched yourself up for with a stock of Mars bars and a few bottles of Red Bull. No longer. At the wheel of a car like our long term Chevrolet Lacetti 1.6, you've the kind of luxury normally reserved for the Chairman. Of course it helps that our long term car is a SX model equipped with all the bells and whistles that you might not bother with if you, rather than your company, were paying the ownership cheque. Having said that, even the most basic repmobile these days comes with things like air conditioning, front and side airbags and a decent stereo. To these things, our Lacetti test car added satellite navigation, leather trim and electric almost everything. It's well equipped, as we said. As for the price, well the SX version we have lists at around £11,250 but you can buy Lacettis from around the £10,000 mark and there's a choice of hatch, saloon or estate bodystyles. For business buyers of course, these figures are often only the starting point for negotiation and Fleet Sales people selling cars like this have in times past often had to be very flexible, given the product on offer elsewhere. The current Lacetti however, is good enough to make their lives a lot easier in this respect. It's priced as a Focus-sized Family Hatch yet offers interior space approaching that of a Mondeo or Vectra class of car.

"To overlook the Lacetti in this sector would be a mistake. Any Sales Rep who's tried one will tell you thatâ€¦.."

Break out the tape measure and you'll find that the Lacetti's wheelbase is a full 2600mm long, longer than cars like the Alfa 159 and the Audi A3. Given that most cars in the Mondeo class campaign with a wheelbase of around 2670mm, you'll appreciate that the Lacetti offers a surprising amount of room for a `compact' car. With 932mm of rear legroom and 275 litres of boot volume, you'll not feel claustrophobic in the back of a Lacetti. Fold the rear bench down, keep a keen eye open for animal welfare types and you'll be able to swing a generously sized cat in the 1,045 litres of fresh air at your disposal. The 109bhp 1.6-litre unit in the version we've been using manages a top end of 116 mph and it dispatches the benchmark sprint in a sprightly 10.7 sec. With an even better fuel economy figure than the 1.4 (39.7mpg combined), the Lacetti 1.6 has a range of over 520 miles from the 13 gallon tank. As an alternative to the manual five-speed transmission, an electronically-controlled adaptive four-speed automatic transmission is also offered. Plus there's a faster 1.8-litre Sport model, priced at around £12,250. Only a diesel variant is missing from the range - something Chevrolet will put right next year. The ride and handling have been optimised for European driving conditions, Chevrolet doing most of their chassis tuning at MIRA near Nuneaton. Twin front and side airbags, four-channel anti lock braking and five three-point seat belts are offered as standard on every model, the front belts featuring load limiters. Styled by Italdesign, the Lacetti certainly doesn't smack of something bargain basement. Chevrolet have forged quite a relationship with this design house, having been extremely happy with the styling work performed on the Matiz citycar and the Kalos supermini. The Lacetti's shape is well resolved; a purposeful wedge with strong shoulders and a very pert rump. The wheel at each corner look not only gives a dynamic stance but also maximises internal space. The rear light clusters are an interesting design feature, bisected as they are by the shutline of the hatchback, and the stub tail and roofline of the car look very much like a Vauxhall Astra -which may be something less than a coincidence. The almond-shaped clear glass headlamps and well-defined wheel arches are signature post millennial design features and the Lacetti looks the part even in traditionally frumpy five-door guise. A three-door model isn't offered which is something of a shame, as this would be quite a looker. In a market sector dominated these days by excellence, it's easy for motoring journalists and Fleet Managers alike to take the Lacetti's talents for granted. Even to overlook the car in conversations dominated by cars like the Mazda6, the Honda Accord and the Peugeot 407. That would be a mistake. Any sales rep who's tried one will tell you that.

Facts At A Glance
CAR: Chevrolet Lacetti 1.6 SX
PRICE: £12,283 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 7
CO2 EMISSIONS: 178g/km
PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph - 10.7s / Max Speed - 116mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (combined) 39.7mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front and side airbags, anti-lock brakes WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE ?: Length/Width/Heightmm 1925/1452/1180mm