1996 Vauxhall Frontera Sport S review from UK and Ireland

Shock Absorber started to work its-self loose at the wish bone, a new locking nut sorted it.

Bonnet catch needed some grease because it started to squeak all the time.

Exhaust is starting to blow at the back box.

I originally intended to buy a Mitsi Shogun, but the lack of good examples forced me to look at the alternatives. I looked at a few frontera's (mostly pre 95 models) of which most were complete lemons, I then found a gorgeous Caribic Blue 96 model and I fell in love with it.

The performance of the Frontera Sport is nothing to write home about, but its good enough to get you out of trouble.

The gearing caters very well for the smallish engine, but it does mean its not very good at cruising on motorways, but then-again wind becomes a bit of a problem at non-legal speeds.

I regularly take the frontera offroad and I've never got it stuck, it makes a meal of deep soft mud, steep hills are no problem in low-ratio 4x4 and the suspension seems to feel better on really rough terrain then your average speed bump :)

On a bad note it's a real pain to get into the back seats and the boot is small (unless you fold the rear seats down) BUT there is absoloutely tonnes of leg room compared to the 5 door model.