{"id":287436,"date":"2026-02-08T14:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T14:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/287436\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T14:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T14:57:11","slug":"opel-frontera-hybrid-gs-136hp-is-a-no-nonsense-family-car-that-offers-value-for-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/287436\/","title":{"rendered":"Opel Frontera Hybrid GS 136hp is a no-nonsense family car that offers value for money"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">\nThis no-nonsense family car offers value for money \u2013 unlike its 1990s predecessor\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Geraldine Herbert test drives the Opel Frontera Hybrid GS 136hp. Photo: Paul Herbert-Kane\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bdd6a64b-c865-4470-90d5-af6f29701c69.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Geraldine Herbert test drives the Opel Frontera Hybrid GS 136hp. Photo: Paul Herbert-Kane<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">When Opel launched their Frontera in 1991, it promised rugged freedom but aged appallingly. It\u2019s now remembered in the same sort of way as shoulder pads or shell suits, beloved in their time but now a case of \u2018What were they thinking?\u2019 The new Opel arrived in \u201990s Ireland, where Mary Robinson represented a new, outward-looking confidence and The Commitments gave Dublin a new swagger. It was boxy, eager and fit right in<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">But it wasn\u2019t very good. Even by the standards of the day, it drove like a wardrobe, bounced along with agricultural enthusiasm, and drank fuel as though petrol might be banned by lunchtime. Yet people bought them. In droves. It seems the early \u201990s were all about looking the part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This no-nonsense family car offers value for money \u2013 unlike its 1990s predecessor Geraldine Herbert test drives the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,7781,61,60,6361],"class_list":{"0":"post-287436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-geraldine-herbert","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-life-magazine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}