Holden: Captiva shakes off pussycat past

The Holden Captiva. Photo / Supplied

The not-so-Aussie Holdens may have got off to a shaky start, but as General Motors pushes forward with vehicles like the Cruze and Captiva, the South Korean machines are becoming more like the roaring lions they should be and less like sedated moggies.

The Cruze, which started off as a clunky, cheap-feeling machine, has matured into a comfortable mid-sized sedan that's happy on New Zealand's challenging roads. Its SRi, powered by a 1.4-litre turbo, proved surprisingly good to drive.

After a week with the new Cruze I hopped into the next-gen Captiva - again an underwhelming ride in its previous iteration. But like its stablemate, the Series II Captiva has grown up fast.

The Captiva range is chopped in two - there's the seven-seater, Captiva 7, and the five-seater, driven here.

Captiva 5 is a lesser-spec machine than its people-moving sibling, but still offers a lot of car for a sharp price, with the two-wheel-drive petrol version tested coming in under the magic 40-grand mark.

Its interior - despite being far more modest than its 7 mate - is well appointed with a very Euro flavour, six MP3-capable disc player, ultra-clean dash layout, pollen-filtered air con, cruise control, and a comfortable driving position in well-shaped cloth seats. There's clever centre-console storage, and front and rear parking assist for those with parallel parking issues.

The 2WD has a willing new 2.4-litre petrol engine, teamed with either a manual or five-speed auto transmission ($38,490 and $39,990 respectively); and a 2.2-litre diesel that's more expensive at $44,990 but adds all-wheel drive.

An SUV without 4WD may seem a bit senseless to some, but the reality is that not all owners of these vehicles get them really dirty - most never.

But how does it cope in its natural environment? School runs, soccer practice, lugging the mates to the game, a holiday machine capable of hauling half a houselot to Hahei?

In these areas, the Captiva 5 is excellent, offering plenty of storage, from one end to the other, and enough in the way of safety bits (dual front and curtain airbags, electronic brake force distribution, brake assist and stability control) to get a four-star crash test rating.

The 2WD version always threatened the wallowing corner attack that tall vehicles tend to exhibit, but while it would probably benefit from being a few centimetres closer to terra firma, the natural front-wheel-drive understeer does keep you cautious, especially at highway speeds.

The 2.4 has a reasonable amount of wick, and it's plenty most of the time - but does need a very solid bootful when overtaking on the open road, especially on hills.

It's a touch porky, and that counts against fuel economy around town. In mostly urban driving, it sat around the early 14L/100km mark.