Opel's cheapest car is now a family SUV, and it comes with a manual gearbox
You can now buy more Opel for less money, which is a rare sentence in 2026
New cars keep getting more expensive, so it is genuinely refreshing when a mainstream brand pushes the other way. Opel has just done exactly that. Its most affordable model is no longer a small hatchback but a proper family SUV, the Frontera, thanks to a new entry trim and a back-to-basics approach that would make Dacia nod in approval.
The cheapest Opel you can buy
The headline is the price. The new Frontera Start opens at 21,990 euros in Germany, which makes it 2,750 euros cheaper than the previous cheapest Frontera and, crucially, less than the Corsa supermini that used to be Opel's entry point. In other words, the least expensive new Opel is now a family-sized SUV rather than a small hatch, which is a genuinely unusual thing to be able to say.
A new engine, and yes, a manual
Part of the trick is a new engine. A 1.2-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol with 100 hp is now offered across the Frontera range, paired with a six-speed manual gearbox, a welcome and increasingly rare thing in a new SUV. It returns official fuel consumption of around 5.9 to 6.1 litres per 100 km with CO2 emissions of 134 to 138 g/km, so it is a sensible, no-nonsense choice rather than an efficiency champion. Buyers who prefer to plug in are still covered: the Frontera is also offered as a 110 hp hybrid and as a full EV with 113 hp and a choice of 44 or 54 kWh batteries, the electric Start starting at 29,900 euros.
Stripped back, on purpose
The Start hits its price by leaving things off, openly and unapologetically. There is no central touchscreen at all; instead you get a smartphone holder and a 10-inch digital driver display, the same money-saving logic Dacia has used to great effect. It rides on 16-inch steel wheels without hubcaps, wears blackened badges and does without roof rails, and comes in blue as standard. You still get the essentials, though: air conditioning, a six-way driver's seat, rear parking sensors and lane departure warning are all included, and the SUV body still offers 460 litres of boot space, expanding to 1,600 with the seats folded.
AutoNext Take
This is a smart, honest bit of product planning, and exactly what a lot of European buyers have been quietly craving. As screens, subscriptions and heavy electrification pile cost onto every new car, a roomy family SUV for under 22,000 euros, with a simple engine and a gearbox you actually operate yourself, feels almost radical. Opel has essentially borrowed Dacia's playbook, give people the space and the basics they need and skip the expensive stuff they do not, and applied it to a familiar mainstream badge.
It will not be for everyone. Some buyers will miss the touchscreen, the alloys and the plush trim, and the petrol engine's economy and emissions are ordinary rather than impressive. But that misses the point of a car like this. The Frontera Start exists to get families into a practical, spacious, brand-name SUV for the price of a well-equipped supermini, and on that measure it succeeds completely. In a market drifting relentlessly upmarket, a big, cheap, cheerful Opel with a manual is a genuinely welcome thing.
