Z28x

Opel/Vauxhall Adam zooms into Europe's supermini fray [w/video]

What do you guys think of GM's Opel Adam? Should they sell it in the USA? and if so should it be a Buick or Chevy? I'm leaning toward Chevy.

Eric77TA

I like it, but is there room for two Chevy micro cars (heck, even two GM micro cars) in the U.S. Market? I realize this is a premium small car vs. the Spark which is more or less a pure economy car, but I'm just not sure how it would do. The 500 hasn't exactly set the world on fire.

Z28x

Good point about the Spark, I forgot about that car. I personally think the spark will flop. It is too small the be practical, and too cheap/economical to be cool. The fact that the Spark is soon to exist in the USA is reason enough to give the Adam to Buick.

King Moose SS

It could make it to the U.S market as a city car, but now is not the time. Gas isn't as expensive as it needs to be and the market is already getting full of these macro cars and no company really has set the edge. Unless it's low on price, it probably won't make it here.

96_Camaro_B4C

Dump the disgusting Spark and bring this instead. Damn!

jg95z28

Agreed!

I guess it would depend on pricing. If it doesn't sell here for less than $20k, then it should be a Buick.

King Moose SS

I think it has to start under $16,000 by default because that's the fiat 500 price.

HAZ-Matt

Mini starts at $20k... if it was indeed a Buick and is decent enough on the inside perhaps they could get away with a similar price point.

Slappy3243

Hell no. These silly little European cars looks stupid and out of place on American roads.

guionM

I just looked at the picture.

You guys saying that Chevrolet should dump the Spark and import this....

...... you're kidding right?????

96_Camaro_B4C

The Spark is just wrong looking. It's like they took a Sonic (which itself looks a little odd in hatch form at the rear; the sedan looks better) and then squished it and distorted it so every proportion is wrong.

I hope you are basing your preference for the Spark on some practical advantage (like more space inside, about which I have no idea) and not on the way the car looks, because the Spark is almost Tata Nano-level comical. Not quite that bad, but getting there...

This Opel Adam, based on the pic in the link, looks like a competitor to the Mini Cooper (which I love), and better than the goofy Fiat 500. Though it has some odd details of its own, like the roof line accent, it blows the Spark out of the water. IMHO.

jg95z28

The Spark is hideous compared to the Adam, however I still see a need for a microcar like the Spark. (The two should not even be compared, nor spoken in the same breath.)

Eric77TA

Oddly enough, I think that the design language for both came from the Spark-sized "Beat" concept in 2007, so you could say that Spark came first.

I realize it's completely a matter of taste, but I think the Sonic hatch is much better looking than the sedan. Same for the Fiesta. But automakers have to hang a trunk on them for American consumption.

jg95z28

I agree. In fact I'd go as far and say the hatch versions are sportier.

96_Camaro_B4C

Sometimes hatches look good (Mazda 3, Ford Focus, Fiesta, others). However, to me they are often proportionally odd. They have the same front overhangs as their sedan counterparts, but the rear ends are cut way short, as though a sedan was driven into a wall in reverse at high speed.

How does an equivalently-equipped Sonic hatch look sportier than the sedan? Maybe because we've become accustomed to "hot hatches", I guess, but I don't know about a two-box shape being somehow sportier than a three-box sedan (or coupe) shape... Slightly more utilitarian than a sedan, sure, but why sportier?

While we're talking hatches and such, I'd take the Cruze wagon over the hatch in a second, if they were to offer it here. Nicer looking AND more practical.