Vauxhall Mokka 1.4 SE Car Review

If you like your coffee and cars weak and milky then the Vauxhall Mokka is for you. I like my coffee strong, black and bitter. The car, however, isn’t great, ‘adequate’ is my one-word summary. The WhatCar review gives it 2 stars, I’d be slightly more generous giving it 2.5 stars, it’s not a 3-star car.

Let’s start with my biggest gripe. Through Enterprise Rent a Car I booked a Focus or Astra size car as that’s the size of car I needed that weekend. The Mokka is Corsa size that’s just been jacked up. Just because a car has a slight appearance of 4×4, should not in my opinion mean it should not be classed as a bigger car. In a city, I’ve never understood the soft roader category, you can’t really see further as no matter how big your car (and I’m including Ranger Rovers here) you still can’t see through a Ford Transit. You don’t sit that high, you can’t go off-road. It is, however, great if you want to wear a tall hat. I am, however, not that tall.

I spent the first couple of minutes in the car trying to work out how to alter the seats. The SE spec model I had has this electric buttons on the seat, which I presumed was the electric seat. After holding each different button for a while and nothing happening, I gave up and thought I’d come back to that later. I later stopped, jumped out and I found a hidden leaver for tilting the seat… great design there Vauxhall!

When picking up the car, the guy at Enterprise Rent a Car, trying to big the car up told me about the heated steering wheel. I was quite impressed until you realise on the next icy morning, if it’s that cold, you are wearing gloves so the heated steering made no difference! The heated leather seats got warm very quickly to the temperature where you think you’ve wet yourself.

Around the city it was fine, nothing special. The 1.4 turbo engine did like to lurch and wasn’t the most economical thing I’d driven recently. The automatic stop start had a mind of its own. Where I found the Vauxhall Mokka excelled though is when I took it to the countryside. The higher driving position made sense and the small size made it perfect for the twisty hills and small country roads.

On A roads, it was fast enough although it doesn’t give you confidence around corners at speed. On the motorway it had no cruise control and was a little noisier than most but perfectly adequate.

Inside the Vauxhall Mokka is just standard dated Vauxhall. I’m not sure if the cloudy weather affected the DAB radio as this kept on dropping out and searching. The leather seats are nice enough.

I’d say the Vauxhall Mokka is best if you live in the countryside, don’t need a 4×4 and want something small. However, in that category you have some tough competition including

Mini Crossover SUV Car Category

  • Nissan Juke
  • Fiat 500X
  • Renault Captur
  • Mini Countryman
  • Citroen C4 Cactus
  • Toyota C-HR