Only two engines options are offered with the Grand Voyager. There’s a 3.8-litre petrol V6, or the far more popular 2.8-litre CRD diesel, as will be found in more than 90 per cent of British Grand Voyagers, and tested here. Both are mated to a six-speed automatic transmission.
The VM Motori-sourced diesel is changed slightly from its previous incarnation. It’s six per cent lighter, has a longer cambelt life, and has a couple of structural changes to the sump and crankshaft. Maximum power is 161bhp, developed at 3800rpm, with a high torque figure of 265lb ft available from as low as 1600rpm.
It’s also a common-rail unit with piezo injectors, which is usually a byword for quietness, though not here. It rattles at idle, and when you start making demands of the 2.8-litre CRD unit it becomes even gruffer.
And make demands you must if you want to make decent progress. At 2200kg, the Grand Voyager has only 74bhp per tonne, which means you’re looking at 12.1sec from 0-60mph.
There are many things that make the Grand Voyager a relaxing car to drive over long distances. There are its large and widely adjustable front seats, there’s its decent driving position, its well sited steering wheel with wheel-mounted controls, and its decent all-round visibility.
The icing on the cake would be a cosseting, adeptly damped ride and excellent sound absorption. Does it get them? Not quite. The Grand Voyager marries a ride that feels soft enough at low speeds with one that is never quite settled, either.
Raise the speed and the Grand Voyager is entirely stable, capable of straight-lining in a relaxed manner for hours at a time, while its steering, at 3.1 turns lock to lock, requires only the smallest and most intuitive of corrections.
Though it lacks the sharpness of a Ford Galaxy, the Grand Voyager actually handles very respectably. It steers accurately and goes around corners quite with a well contained roll rate.