What is it?
What do a Vauxhall Adam and a Ferrari Enzo have in common? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t a 6.0-litre V12. It’s that both cars are named after their founders, sort of. Naturally, Vauxhall’s entry into the style-led supermini class is sold in mainland Europe as an Opel, a company founded by a chap called Adam.
To draw in the kind of fashionistas that like to see their new car as a blank canvas, Unlimited trim allows you to pick from any of the dizzying array of personalisation options on offer, avoiding the limitations that other variants have. That means you can pick your body, roof, mirror cap and grille bar colour; choose the wheel size and design; add external decals; and pick seat fabric and dashboard inserts. You still have to pay extra for most of that, though.
Mechanically, it’s exactly as before. In the case of our test car, there’s a 1.0-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine bolted to a six-speed manual gearbox. Cheaper, naturally aspirated 1.4s and 1.2s are also on offer, should you not require all 113bhp of three-pot fury.
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Autocar misses an obvious rival.....yet again!
The 595 Custom is only marginally more expensive but has 145bhp to the mAdam's 113, 2 seconds quicker 0-62 and has more than enough standard equipment (phone/internet connectivity, aircon, 16" alloys, body kit, etc). Loads of customisation options too (Vauxhall is merely copying the 500 which launched with 500,000 options).
The mAdam is not fun to drive, the exact opposite of the grin-inducing Abarth.
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I've no idea why Autocar don't have some imagination when suggesting alternatives?
I am the only one who likes this car
sales
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Both of those companies have never sold huge amounts compared to Opel in Europe and the Swift is about to be replaced.
The 500 sold 13,000 in Oct (and that was a below average month, and, it's been around forever)