Driving Chevrolet’s Captivating, new small SUV

The new Chevrolet Captiva is one compact SUV that should have its competitors quaking in their all-terrain rubber boots.

For one thing, it’s got all the necessary weapons to take the fight to them: head-turning, upmarket styling; a spacious and versatile cabin; and an available common-rail diesel engine option where most of its competition (save for the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage) give you no alternative to their gas-guzzling gasoline motors.

To put the Captiva in better perspective relative to its rivals, however, I opted to test drive the lower-priced (P1,119,000) gasoline version.

The gasoline motor is a 2.4-liter, 16-valve DOHC 4-cylinder powerplant rated at 142 ps at 5,000 rpm and 22 kg-m of torque at 2,200 rpm. (The P1,499,000 diesel is a 2-liter SOHC with turbo intercooler and common-rail direct-injection for peak output of 150 ps at 4,000 rpm and a much higher 32 kg-m of torque.)

It revs smoothly and all 142 horses are present and accounted for, giving the Captiva the same zippiness that has endeared the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV 4 to legions of owners.

Ultimate output may be a bit lower vis-à-vis its variable valve timing-equipped rivals but it doesn’t give anything away to non-VVTi- or non-VTEC-equipped competitors like the four-cylinder models of the Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute, Nissan X-Trail or Suzuki Grand Vitara.

Standard transmission for either of the Captiva’s engines is a 5-speed automatic with a sequential manual override. All-wheel drive variants use a fully automatic system that transmits power to the front wheels in most situations but which seamlessly transfers power to the rear axle when more traction is needed.

Providing a comfy and stable ride are front McPherson struts and a 4-link independent rear suspension. Four-wheel-disc brakes with ABS are standard and perform superbly.

The Captiva presents strong value-for-money with standard features like rain-sensing wipers, automatic headlamps, front and rear foglamps, 6-disc CD/MP3/AUX/FM/AM stereo, multifunction steering wheel, airbags, power-folding side mirrors, and a 3-year/100,000 kilometer warranty plus 24-hour roadside assistance.

Still, it’s the styling which I think will be the Captiva’s biggest trump card. The sloping window line and the BMW-like horizontal character line may have been seen first in the latest CR-V but it still does a great job of making heads turn towards this new Chevy.

It even has a playful little dogleg kink on the D-pillar that’s oh-so-Bavarian. Our test car’s Germanic silver finish proved to be very flattering for its curves.

The front end, particularly the seemingly glaring projector-type headlamps, have a bit of Hyundai Santa Fe aggressiveness to it.

The rear, on the other hand, is set off by large triangular tail lamps which look better than the vast majority of the traditionally vertical-shaped tail lamps in this segment. If anything, the Captiva’s rear light clusters remind me of the current RAV 4’s.

Bold (read: love it or hate it) design elements are the small mesh vent openings on the front fenders and the positioning of the foglamps halfway between the painted part of the bumper and its black honeycomb lower portion.

A safer design approach would have been to integrate the foglamps into the honeycomb recess but then again, since when did “safe” designs make the front page?

Little details on the Captiva’s exterior seem to point to a lot of other sources of design inspiration; but viewed as a whole, the car presents a unified and more importantly, very stylish design.

But enough of this new Chevy’s looks. Let’s go to the inevitable question that a lot of you are thinking right now: Is the new Chevrolet Captiva any good?

My answer? Yep, the new Captiva is the real deal. It might not up the ante in the small SUV stakes, but it certainly has what it takes to play with the big boys of this segment. And that’s already saying a lot!

THE GOOD

• Stylish exterior with BMW-like design cues

• Roomy and versatile interior

• Smooth ride and responsive handling

• Peppy engine

• Lots of standard features

• Great value for money

THE BAD

• Unproven long-term quality/reliability record

THE VERDICT

• A worthy addition to the ultra-competitive compact SUV segment – and one that should be in any compact SUV buyer’s shopping list.