WHEN I had the Opel Adam super mini parked on the driveway, the
neighbour called, asking to have a look. (The name, by the way, remembers Adam
Opel, who founded the company in 1862).
My neighbour is a granny with a penchant for speed, she is looking
for a small car that could also fit
a baby seat and thought the Adam would fit the bill admirably.
a baby seat and thought the Adam would fit the bill admirably.
After cooing over the little hearts embroidered in the floor
mats and reveling in the turbo’s power up Maritzburg’s steep hills, it was
with real regret that she opined a two-door super mini is perhaps not the best
shape to fit baby seats in.
Style it your way
Apart from the embroidered hearts, the Adam
boasts what Opel calls “a multitude of personalisation options”, starting with a
colour-coded key fob.
Opel brand manager at General Motors South Africa, Christopher
Cradock, said the Adam is the first of our “new Germans”; a vehicle which
embodies Opel’s heritage of precision German-engineered, desirable cars with
attractive design and the latest technology. “Adam takes things a step further
by appealing to the modern buyer who wants to stand out in a crowd with a highly
customisable and affordable package,” Cradock said.
Three Adam models are on offer: the entry-level Adam, the Adam Jam
and the range-topping Adam Glam.
Each of these model lines offer a comprehensive choice of
factory-fitted customisation options, dealer-fitted accessories and a wide
selection of exciting exterior paint colours.
The Adam comes in eight body colours, and the names say it all:
Purple Fiction, I’ll Be Black, Let It Blue, The Greyfather, James Blonde,
Saturday White Fever, Silverwalker and Red ’n Roll. I was more impressed with
the comprehensive offering of standard safety equipment, infotainment and
convenience features usually reserved for more premium-priced vehicles.
I put them all to the test with a business trip that turned into a
road trip en route to Port Shepstone.
The only fault I could find is that the automatic wipers could
switch on a little earlier, but the windscreen is treated with water-phobic stuff
so that the droplets blew off before the sensor could sense the wetness.
It shunts and handles
Up the N2 hills, the one-litre turbocharged
ecoFLEX three-cylinder engine kept the speed at a steady 118 km/h on cruise control, despite the 200 plus
kilogram weight of the two blokes inside.
Nothing I experienced in the entry-level Adam the
naturally-aspirated 1,4-litre Ecotec four-cylinder unit prepared me for such
sterling performance.
Both the Jam and Glam models have this sweet little mill that power output is a generous 85 kW between
5 000 and 6 000 rpm, with torque of 170 Nm available between 1 800 and
4 500 rpm, with a six-speed manual sending power to the front.
The ride is go-kart precise, but with this comes a jarring hardness
at low speed in the city.
While in need of tight turns, the Opel’s City Mode Steering allows
the two-mode electric power steering to react with increased power assistance
when the driver engages the system, making parking in tight spots a
breeze.
Inside, the storage areas have been designed around the modern
driver’s need to store remote controls, smartphones and chargers, and I could
find a little nook and cranny to store them all.
For the geeks
Young drivers — at whom the Adam is aimed
— will fall in love with Opel’s IntelliLink
infotainment system linked seamlessly to several phones through a seven-inch
high-definition touch screen display, offering photo and video playback.
Old ballies like me will like the Adam’s individual tyre pressure
monitoring with tyre load indicators and the read view mirror, because the lowered roofline at the rear
narrows visibility.
All drivers will enjoy the Advanced Park Assist 2 system, which
comes standard in the Jam and Glam models. It parks the Adam in both parallel
and perpendicular parking spaces, the driver only needing to manage speed and
braking, and the selection of reverse and first gear.
All models come with a five-year or 120,000 km vehicle warranty, a
five-year, unlimited mileage anti-corrosion warranty, and a three-year or
60,000 km service plan, linked to service intervals of 15,000 km.
Adam pricing
• 1.4 R191 800
• Jam 1.0T ecoFLEX R212 000
• Glam 1.0T ecoFLEX R235 300
(First published in Witness Wheels)
(First published in Witness Wheels)
