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New Opel Zafira breaks cover

The Zafira Tourer 'concept' closely resembles the next generation seven-seat Opel MPV.

This is the Opel Zafira Tourer Concept. Imagine it with proper wing mirrors and minus the integrated tailpipe finishers and you have the production car. Not bad, eh?

Yes, Geneva will host the unveiling of the next big thing from Opel. It's a seven-seat people carrier whose main influencers are the front end of the Ampera hybrid, the sides of the Insignia and the back end of... something else.

The interior architecture of the show car is pretty much what you'll see in showrooms at the start of next year, although most will be bought in more sombre tones and without the flashy screen - we guess.

Still, it looks promising - especially the driving position, what with the high mounted gear stick. Could this be a Ford S-Max rival, finally?

No tech or spec details yet, though a few boasts about "limousine" levels of space thanks to the latest Flex7 seating arrangement. The rearmost two seats fold down as per most of these things, but "at the touch of a button" the car will go from a five- to a four-seat layout, liberating cat-swinging emptiness.

The production ready Ampera will be shown too, though it's unlikely to be that different from all the other versions Vauxhall's taken to the last umpteen motor shows.

The company has also announced the addition of a new convertible to its line-up, due in 2013. All it is saying is that the car is based on the new Astra architecture, which means it's probably the next Astra TwinTop, but maybe with a different name. That's not at the Geneva Show by the way.

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Published on February 28, 2011