With a name such as ‘Captiva’, you knew Chevrolet was simply asking for it.  Such a name calls for an SUV with jaw-dropping good looks or formidable performance or maybe even both.  Alas, with the Captiva, you don’t get either.  Instead, you get a completely competent SUV with enough space for daily drive minus character.  With well over a dozen possible benchmarks in the market today, it’s incomprehensible as to why Chevrolet took the path already taken—but they did.

It’s actually quite nice of Chevrolet to provide a choice of engines with the Captiva.  Depending on the audible rattle at idle and the telltale turbocharger whoosh on acceleration, you can play ‘spot the diesel’ with the Captiva.  With 150 horsepower and 320 Nm of torque, the diesel-fed Captiva has all the proper ingredients found in a modern-day oil burner.  But the net effect felt somewhat like a half-cooked mushy Chinese (or Korean) cabbage dish with the usual diesel raucous.  Sure, there is instantaneous acceleration and stupendous fuel mileage (Chevrolet reckons it can return 13.15 km/L); but the diesel could have used better refinement.  Chevrolet had a full two years to develop a much better diesel engine than the one found in the Tucson, but instead plopped one in that sounded almost the same way.

If you can’t stomach driving a ratty diesel or can’t find a way to pay the additional P 100,000 for one, Chevrolet does offer a nicely quiet 2.4-liter petrol engine.  With 142 horsepower and just 220 Nm of torque, this engine doesn’t offer the same satisfying power off the line, but at least it’s way quieter and more livable for high-speed, long-distance driving.  It doesn’t offer the same slick feeling found in a Honda i-VTEC engine or even the satisfying low-end torque grunt of a Toyota VVT-I engine, but this one at least is fairly commendable.  That is, if you can stomach the 5.95 km/L city fuel mileage (Chevrolet says 11.23 km/L, but maybe if you drive solely on highways).

Despite the lackluster engines, the beauty with the Captiva is that both powerplants are mated to a five-speed automatic which do offer world-class goods.  They shift effortlessly with hardly any need to activate the manual override mode (which is hopelessly useless, by the way).  Chevrolet was gracious enough to provide an all-wheel drive version of the Captiva, complete with its space-age script on the hatch.  The all-wheel drive system on the Captiva is completely transparent and computer-controlled that primarily drives the front-wheels but can divert up to 50 percent of torque to the rear wheels when needed; a perfect ally given the sudden bursts of heavy rains in the Metro lately.

The Chevrolet Captiva looks pleasant enough, but it doesn't quicken your pulse either. But hey, at least it contains the most used modern design cues such as door mounted mirrors with turn signal repeaters no less!

The side gills are primarily for design only. You don't go any faster with the Captiva than an average SUV.