The small, city car segment welcomed a new member at the Paris Motor Show last week. The German Opel Adam hatchback will fight the good fight against the Fiat 500, Audi A1 and Mini Cooper, and offer the brand a distinctive new model to fit beneath the Corsa. Featuring distinctive styling, lots of customisation and what Opel calls ‘floating roof design’, the 3 700 mm long Adam is probably the most important car the struggling European manufacturer has brought to market this decade.
The Adam will be available in three trims, named: Jam, Glam and Slam. The trim levels are meant to appeal to the fashionable/colourful, elegant/sophisticated and racy/sporty customers respectively. It’s also offered in 12 body colours while other options include 20 different wheel designs from 16- to 18-inches and over a dozen interior shades. Buyers can also specify decal packages and LED-lit foils to the interior panels to even personalise the roof headlining.
The Adam my seem like a load of frothy fun, but it also isn’t without an array of modern automotive technologies, that include LED daytime headlights and a heated steering wheel; both of which are firsts in this small city car segment, say General Motors. Electronic stability control is standard across the range as well as a ‘City’ mode steering that lightens up for urban driving. The Adam features a seven-inch infotainment screen with a system that supports most Android or Apple smartphones.
In Europe at least, the Adam will be available with three normally aspirated four-cylinder petrol engines: a 1.2-litre with 52 kW and two 1.4-litre units producing 64 kW and 74 kW respectively, each mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox. General Motors say later on, a new generation of small petrol engines with forced induction and direct injection, will join a 6-speed transmission in the range.
The newest city car will be priced up to £14 000 in the UK, while in Germany, prices start at €11 500. General Motors South Africa has neither confirmed nor denied that the Opel Adam will be made available locally.
