A FRESH face is coming to Vauxhall with a new design theme that is making its debut on a heavily revamped Crossland SUV.

Smoother lines and a completely new treatment to the front of the car make the latest Crossland as contemporary as they come.

Vauxhall calls it a ‘vizor front' and it replaces an open grille with a single gloss black strip running from headlight to headlight.

There's also a new version of the Griffin logo which in one way or another has been fixed to Vauxhall cars - Britain's oldest surviving auto brand - since 1903.

It's a look that will be appearing on all of Vauxhall's new models and the Crossland is soon to be followed by an all-new Mokka and refreshed version of the Insignia in the coming months.

The new Crossland is priced from £19,060 - an increase of some £1,400 from the previous model - and is powered by a range of engines from parent company Stellantis - itself a new entity coming from the merger of PSA and Fiat Chrysler.

The line up starts with 1.2-litre non-turbo model developing 82ps and goes on to include turbocharged versions with either 110 or 130ps on tap.

Diesels are of 1.5-litre capacity and come in 110 and 120ps outputs.

A sporty new SRi Nav grade is being added to the six trim line up and sits in the middle of the range priced from £21,410.

That's the version we sampled and with the 130ps engine under the bonnet it costs from £23,390 and comes with an 8.5-inch display panel, full smartphone connectivity and LED lights all round as well as other embellishment such as a 3.5-inch colour instrument display, ergonomically supportive front seats and tinted rear glass.

The interior is uncluttered with a straightforward and modern approach, set off on the car we tried with a coloured dashboard, although the Crossland has retained the slightly fiddly release button on the top of the handbrake.

All but the entry-level 82ps Crosslands have six-speed manual gearboxes and automatic transmissions are available on the higher powered versions priced from £24,940.

On the road the latest Crossland is much sharper and refined when it comes to handling and changes have been made to the steering to make it more responsive.

It performs well and the 130ps SRi Nav has a top speed of 125mph with a 0 to 60 acceleration of 9.5 seconds making it the quickest of the range.

Officially the best fuel return is rated at 49.5mpg with emissions of 130g/km and we managed to average 47 to the gallon - so no grumbles there.

The ergonomic design of the seats has made a huge improvement on comfort levels for the driver and are nicely supportive all round with lumbar adjustment, a cushion extension for leg length and adjustability for height and reach.

Boot space is as before and ranges from 410 litres to a maximum of 1,255 and on SRi and top grade Ultimate Nav models that is enhanced with a sliding rear row of seats that increases the load area to 520 litres with underfloor space.

In total the rear seats can slide through some six inches and there's also a ‘ski hatch' opening for added flexibility on the SRi and Ultimate Nav models.

We also tried an automatic Crossland over a similar route and that performed equally impressively although fuel economy is not so good as the manual and rated at 45.6mpg at best (137g/km).

We achieved an average of 41.4 to the gallon making it a slightly thirstier option overall and while there's a tiptronic facility for manual changes there were no paddle shifters which would have added to the car's sporting characteristics.

Vauxhall claims the original Crossland as its first crossover and since its launch in the UK back in 2017 some 50,000 have been sold.

The styling changes on the latest model are significant and bring the Crossland right up to date in the most popular part of the car market.

Safety systems include lane departure warning and speed sign recognition on all versions and the only element that is really lacking at the moment is the availability of some electrified powertrains.