PEOPLE MOVER
Car dubbed ‘the most comfortable in the world’ by Jeremy Clarkson can be yours for less than £5,000
The former Top Gear host claimed it's more comfortable than a Rolls-Royce
A MOTOR dubbed "the most comfortable car in the world" by Jeremy Clarkson could be yours for less than £5,000.
The incredibly practical seven-seater popular with families was described as "extraordinary" by the usually hard-to-please petrol-head.
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The motor in question is the Vauxhall Zafira which Clarkson once borrowed from U2 singer Bono in a bizarre incident in the south of France.
While taking a trip to a small coastal village, the former Top Gear host asked a guide if he could borrow a car to drive up a very steep hill.
Much to his bemusement, he was invited to Bono's house where he was handed the keys to the With or Without You singer's Zafira.
In a feature for from 2016, Jeremy wrote: "There’s no flowery way of putting this so I’ll just come straight out with it; Bono drives a Vauxhall Zafira diesel.
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"In my mind, he’d have had something fast and expensive but not showy or vulgar.
"A Maserati Quattroporte, or a BMW M6 Gran Coupe perhaps."
However, the motor-head quickly changed his mind when he got behind the wheel.
He wrote: "As we climbed up the mountain, the Zafira was very roly-poly but I found it surprisingly easy to moderate the pitching by turning the wheel gently and braking as though the pedal were made of an egg.
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"Then I noticed how brilliant the engine was.
"It’s an all-aluminium, turbocharged 1.6-litre unit that can apparently do more than 60mph on a cruise and 120mph when you’re in a hurry.
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"And then I went over a speed hump and I simply didn’t feel a thing.
"Never in all my years in this business have I encountered any car — including the Rolls-Royce Phantom — that’s quite so good at refusing to transmit road surface irregularities into the cabin.
"Which makes it the most comfortable car — pause — in the world."
The Zafira, which enjoyed a 20-year run from 1999 until 2019, is a renowned cheap and versatile seven-seat MPV that was described by Which? as "essentially a stretched version of the Astra hatchback with a more upright body".
It's perhaps best known for its incredible interior space and seating, allowing for a pair of seats to fold out of the boot floor.
It's also very reasonable to buy, even when it was new.
Today, a second-hand Zafira Tourer can be bought for as little as £5,000.
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A diesel model from 2016 - much like the one Clarkson borrowed from Bono - is up for sale on Autotrader for just £4,499.
In the Sunday Times, the Grand Tour host summed up the Zafira by simply saying: "The car’s extraordinary."
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