All generations and engines together · 136,584 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 61k
Worse than most people carriers for its age, and about average per mile driven. Watch emissions/leaks and corrosion. A used buy worth some caution. Check the MOT history for repeating emissions/leaks advisories before you go.
Split by first-registration year. Cars registered in a changeover year can belong to either generation.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press, with how well each report stands up. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
On the Zafira B (2005-2014), a faulty heater fan resistor pack could overheat, especially if the pollen filter was clogged, and set fire to the surrounding trim. The London Fire Brigade flagged a spike in cases in 2015, and Vauxhall ran two safety recalls, a first in December 2015 and a wider one from May 2016, to fit a redesigned scuttle panel and a tamper-proof resistor. Check the recall was actually completed on the specific car, since some early repairs only covered part of the fix. A UK criminal investigation into how the recall was handled was opened in 2018.
The 1.9 CDTi in the Zafira B has a name for eating waterpumps, which seize and can throw the timing belt, wrecking the engine. This tends to show up around 40,000-50,000 miles rather than at a fixed interval. The same engine is known for the inlet manifold swirl flaps snapping and getting pulled into a cylinder, plus EGR valve and turbo failures. A belt-and-pump service runs a few hundred pounds; an engine rebuild after a snapped belt runs into four figures.
Across both the Zafira B (1.7/1.9 CDTi) and the Tourer C (1.6/2.0 CDTi), owners repeatedly report emissions system trouble: DPFs clogging on cars mostly used for short runs, EGR coolers failing internally and letting oil and coolant mix, and on later cars the AdBlue module and pump failing around 45-50k miles at a cost of roughly £1,400. This lines up with the measured MOT data for this class of MPV, where emissions and leaks is the standout failure pattern; the owner reports suggest the leak side often starts with a failed EGR cooler rather than a simple gasket.
On the 6-speed automatic gearbox fitted to diesel Zafira Bs, a radiator-mounted heat exchanger can fail internally and let engine coolant leak into the transmission fluid, which ruins the gearbox from the inside. Owners report jerky, delayed changes as an early warning sign; by the time it is caught, the usual fix is a full transmission replacement, quoted around £4,000. Manual and petrol cars are not affected.
Manual 1.8i and 2.2i petrol Zafira Bs get persistent reports of clutch judder from a worn dual-mass flywheel, usually felt as vibration through the pedal or floor when pulling away. Vauxhall changed the flywheel and clutch parts partway through 2007 production, which owners take as a quiet admission of the problem, though there has been no public recall or acknowledged TSB. Replacing the clutch and flywheel together typically costs several hundred pounds.
A grab-bag of electrical faults keeps coming up on both generations: xenon headlight units failing outright (parts alone can run over £1,000), horns going dead when the headlights are on (Zafira B, pre-2008 cars, a free dealer fix existed at the time), and ABS/ESP sensor faults triggering warning lights. How common these really are is disputed among owners; some report years of trouble-free electrics, others get hit with several failures close together, and there is no single acknowledged cause tying them together.
Ranked from this model’s own MOT record, then from what owners report.
Saveable checklistThe physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
Drawn from the reports above rather than the MOT data. These are the model-specific ones.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 35,924 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Same segment (MPVs), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.
Head to head with the other popular cars in its class on reliability and common faults.