Used Vauxhall Grandland 2018-2024 review

Family cars have moved on from the humble hatchbacks of old; increasingly, buyers are turning towards SUVs for domestic duty, whether that's taking the children to school, picking up the weekly shop from the supermarket and taking the grandparents out at the weekend. Perhaps that's why the Vauxhall Grandland has been so popular over the years.

The Grandland competes with the likes of the Seat Ateca and the equally popular Nissan Qashqai. Just like the smaller Vauxhall Crossland, the Grandland is based on Peugeot underpinnings, in this case the Peugeot 3008.

When it was first launched in 2018, the Grandland was originally called the Grandland X, but it dropped the X nomenclature in 2022 when the car was facelifted. At the same time, it received a new front end design with Vauxhall's 'visor' grille and revised trims.

Engines and performance: The engine range opens with a turbocharged 1.2-litre petrol and a 1.6-litre diesel. If you want a bit more power, there are 1.5-litre and 2.0-litre diesels. The petrol engine copes surprisingly well with this heavy SUV, but if you are carrying passengers regularly, you may need one of the more powerful diesel engines. All non-hybrid engines are available with an eight-speed automatic or a six-speed manual gearbox (other than the 2.0-litre diesel, which is auto-only).

The Grandland is available with a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) power option, which offers an official electric-only range of 34 miles (it's only available with top-spec trims). In 2023, a mild hybrid version of the 1.2-litre petrol engine was added to the range. It uses a tiny electric motor to boost the engine when accelerating, plus it can run on electric-only power at low speeds or when coasting.

Ride and handling: Comfort is what the Grandland aims to deliver and, for the most part, it succeeds. If you avoid the bigger wheels, its soft suspension deals with bigger bumps better than that of the sportier Ateca, although this means the Grandland rolls more in corners and has noticeably more squat under acceleration and dive under braking. The steering is slightly vague to begin with, then becomes much quicker after you apply a few more degrees of turning force. This can take a bit of getting used to and doesn't feel as natural as the steering of some rivals. You may also find it takes a little while to learn to be smooth with the clutch; there isn’t a great deal of feel at its biting point, particularly in the petrol.

Interior and practicality: The Grandland's interior is a little bland and the infotainment system is quite basic. It's also not as plush inside as the 3008, but that said, the controls are all logically laid out and it's very easy to get comfortable behind the wheel. Space inside is decent; there's plenty of shoulder room in the front, ample leg space in the back and a big boot for shopping and a child’s pushchair. Much like its 3008 sibling, the Grandland's glove box is tiny due to space taken up by the fuse box. Unfortunately, there isn't much oddments storage in the rest of the interior to make up for this.

Trims and equipment: Equipment levels are generous, but the trim levels are complicated. In pre-facelift models, you have the entry-level SE (later SE Premium), which includes a 17in alloy wheels, a 7.0in infotainment touchscreen, dual-zone climate control, automatic LED headlights and rear parking sensors.

Above that there's Business Edition Nav, which adds an 8.0in touchscreen, sat nav, wireless phone-charging, sport front seats, front parking sensors and a reversing camera. It also comes with more safety kit, including automatic emergency braking (AEB), blind spot monitoring and lane-keep assist. SRi Nav is similarly equipped to Business Edition, but gets 18 alloys and sportier styling (but does without the wireless charging pad).

Elite Nav gives you 19in alloys, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, a heated windscreen, an electrically adjustable driver's seat and a panoramic glass roof on top of the kit you get with SRi Nav. At the top of the range there's Ultimate, which gives you a wireless charging pad, blind spot monitoring, a wide-view reversing camera, keyless entry and start and a powered tailgate on top of equipment you get with Elite Nav.

Thankfully, Vauxhall simplified the trim levels to Design, GS Line and Ultimate when the car was updated in 2021. Design includes 17in alloys, a 7.0in touchscreen, automatic LED headlights, rain-sensing wipers, front and rear parking sensors and dual-zone climate control. It also received a lot more safety kit than the old entry-level SE Premium trim.

GS Line gives you 18 alloys, a 10.0in touchscreen, a 12.0in digital driver's display, sat nav, a reversing camera, sport front seats, tinted rear windows and sportier exterior styling. Range-topping Ultimate trim comes with loads of kit, with 19in alloys, keyless entry, a wireless phone charger, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, a powered tailgate, blind spot monitoring and adaptive cruise control offered as standard.

"I always recommend taking everything the official figures say with a pinch of salt. In our real-world driving test, the Grandland PHEV managed a real-world range of 23 miles on electric-only power, which is 11 miles short of its official WLTP figure. Even so, that should still be enough for the average commute." – George Hill, Used Cars Writer

If you're interested in finding a used Grandland, or any of the other cars mentioned here, head over to the Used Car Buying pages to find lots of cars listed for sale at a great price.

Prices for the Grandland start from around £6000, but that will get you a high mileage pre-facelift 2018 car in 1.2-litre SE form. Low mileage examples start from around £9000, with prices moving up to £11,000 for newer 2021 cars in mid-spec trims.

If you want the range-topping Ultimate trim or a plug-in hybrid, expect to pay between £13,000 and £19,000. Facelift models start from around £14,000, with GS models being particularly popular. Newer 2023 and 2024 cars start from £17,000 and rise up to £26,000.

Check the value of a used Vauxhall Grandland with What Car? Valuations

MPG

Fuel economy is very competitive with other family SUVs, no doubt helped by the fact the Grandland is front-wheel-drive-only.

The turbocharged 1.2-litre petrol engine returns a combined fuel economy figure of 45.6mpg; if you need better fuel economy, you’ll need to go diesel. There are three on offer: a 1.6-litre, a 1.5-litre and a 2.0-litre. The 1.6 is the most frugal engine in the Grandland range on paper, at 70.6mpg, while the 1.5 that replaced it averages 54.3mpg. The 2.0-litre's figure is 47.9mpg.

Alternatively, the plug-in hybrid officially manages 204mpg, but you'll only come close to achieving that figure if you regularly charge it up and use petrol sparingly. The mild hybrid is a bit more efficient than the regular 1.2-litre petrol; it can officially average up to 51.3mpg.

CO2 emissions

On paper, the plug-in hybrid is the one that puffs out the least greenhouse gasses, at 34g/km of CO2, but it's arguably the 1.6-litre diesel that will be more relevant to used car buyers at the moment, and that emits 104g/km. The 1.5-litre diesel that replaced it spits out slightly more at 108g/km, while the more potent 2.0-litre posts a figure of 122g/km. The petrol 1.2 emits 115g/km and the mild hybrid 124g/km.

Road tax

All models will have been registered after 1 April 2017, so the same £195 flat rate will apply to all examples. However, higher-specced versions of the plug-in hybrid Grandland cost more than £40,000 when new, subjecting these versions to an additional £425 luxury car tax until such time as the vehicle reaches six years of age, when it will then go back down to the standard flat rate fee. To find out more about the current road tax costs, click here.

Insurance

Insurance is competitive with most rivals and it sits in lower insurance groups than the Volkswagen Tiguan. The entry-level 1.2-litre petrol and 1.6-litre diesels start in insurance group 14, rising to 15 for the more refined 1.5-litre diesel. The bigger 2.0-litre diesel is group 22, while the powerful plug-in hybrid model is the most expensive to insure since it starts in group 29.

Servicing

Servicing costs are competitive with rivals such as Skoda and Volkswagen. There are different prices depending upon whether you have a petrol or diesel engine and if you need an interim, main or major service. For petrol models, these are £160, £265 and £305 respectively; diesel models are a little more expensive at £170, £295 and £365 respectively. If you have an engine that requires a fuel additive as part of the service, then you’ll need to add £19.20 to the cost of a service. Alternatively, you can also pay monthly for a three-year servicing plan. This will set you back £19 a month for petrols and £22 for diesels. Servicing is required annually or every 16,000 miles.

Safety

The Grandland was awarded a full five-star safety rating by Euro NCAP, but that was back in 2017. Since then, the test has been updated to make it more strict. In terms of safety kit, we'd recommend going for one of the facelift models, which come with a lot more safety equipment as standard than the pre-facelift Grandland X cars. Entry-level Design models, for instance, come with AEB, lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist and traffic sign recognition as standard.

Warranty

From new, every Grandland comes with a three-year/60,000-mile warranty and a year of roadside assistance. That matches the cover provided by most manufacturers, but it can’t beat the five-year warranty offered by Hyundai or Kia’s seven-year package.

Reliability

The Vauxhall Grandland and Grandland X had mixed reliability results in our latest What Car? Reliability Survey, based on real-world owner reviews.

Common complaints included persistent electrical gremlins, such as unexplained warning lights and infotainment systems that froze or failed. Diesel models were also affected by AdBlue system problems, with some cars needing multiple dealer visits for resets or repairs.

Dealer experiences were equally varied. While some owners praised fast, friendly service, others were left frustrated by long waits for parts and repeated misdiagnoses.

Find out more about Vauxhall Grandland reliability on our dedicated reliability page.

Engine

Avoid the 2.0-litre diesel if costs are a concern: it can be expensive to buy and is not that cheap to run. If you regularly make long journeys, the 1.5-litre diesel is a better bet. Alternatively, the plug-in hybrid could be worthwhile if you have a relatively short commute and access to charging both at home and at work. However, we’d suggest sticking with the base 1.2-litre petrol because it’s a relatively quiet engine (apart from some low-rev thrumminess) and should still return respectable fuel economy.

Specification

SE and SE Premium cars are good value, but we reckon it's worth going for the mid-spec Elite Nav trim if you can. There are plenty of them available on the used market and they're good value. You also get plenty of luxuries for the money, with heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, a heated windscreen, an electrically adjustable driver's seat and a panoramic glass roof.

Our favourite Vauxhall Grandland: 1.2 Turbo Elite Nav

The Nissan Qashqai is the car that started the whole family SUV craze and it’s still a good option if you need a comfortable car with a nice interior. You also get plenty of equipment, too.

The Peugeot 3008 is perhaps the closest rival to the Grandland – particularly because it is basically the same car under the skin. The biggest difference between the two is on the inside; the 3008 has a much more daring design than the Grandland, yet it retains all of the practicality of the Vauxhall.

However, if you want one of the best used family SUVs, you’ll have to look towards the Seat Ateca. Not only does it feel much more car-like to drive, but it has a broader range of engines and is well equipped, particularly SE Technology models.

The Skoda Karoq is based on the same underpinnings as the Ateca, but instead focuses more on comfort than sporty driving. It's also very practical with an interior that feels built to last. Used prices are competitive, too.

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