Vauxhall launches the smartphone-on-wheels

A LIMITED edition hatchback billed as ‘a smartphone on wheels’ is Vauxhall’s latest offering for fashion-conscious motorists.

Just 250 of the new versions of the ADAM supermini, called the ADAM Black and the ADAM White in honour of their distinctive paintjobs, are being created, and are designed to be fully compatible with the latest versions of the iPhone to help make it easier for buyers to use them on the move.

The new model, which is powered by a 1.4 litre petrol engine good for 87bhp, is available now and costs £14,995.

Vauxhall launches four new special edition models

VAUXHALL has launched new, more lavishly-equipped versions of no less than four of its models.

The company said this week it has launched the new twists on the Corsa, Astra, Astra GTC and Insignia, called simply the Limited Edition versions, which include up to £2,000 worth of what were previously optional extras as standard.

The cheapest version, based on the Corsa, has a starting price of £8,995. To find out more about the Limited Edition range go to www.vauxhall.co.uk

Fire up the... Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 SRI

LIKE garnishing an omelette with a helping of jalapeños, Vauxhall’s hoping that treating its supermini to the sporty SRI treatment will give the Corsa some added spice.

While it’s not the hottest Corsa on offer – that honour going to the track day fan’s favourite, the VXR Nürburgring – this SRI screams potential, thanks to the 17-inch alloy wheels and the bodykit inspired by its leerier big brother. But before I can find out whether it’s as enticing to drive as it to behold, it’s time to get a confession out of the way. Over the past few years I’ve driven a couple of Corsas – primarily the 1.0 litre Ecoflex and the 1.2 petrol versions – and haven’t exactly heaped praise on them.

Happily, things get off to a good start with the SRI once you hop inside – the red stitching on the steering wheel and the scarlet seat surrounds immediately give you the air of being inside something a bit special without straying into boy racer territory, and it’s more than comfortable and amply equipped for its £15,600 price tag. It suffers from the same enormous blind spots as its Corsa siblings, but that aside it’s somewhere you’ll enjoy being on even the longest of trips.

Thanks to its clever variable valve timing system the 1.4 petrol engine offers up plenty of punch without resorting to turbocharging, but because the real oomph’s only to be discovered above 3,000rpm it’s a car that encourages you to drive it by the scruff of its neck – probably the reason why I only managed, despite my best efforts, to get a shade over forty to the gallon in it. It’s great for rev-happy blasts along country lanes, but effortless motorway overtaking really isn’t the SRI’s strong suit.

It’s a similarly mixed bag when you get to the corners too, because while it handles with plenty of aplomb the steering is nowhere near sharp enough to encourage a keen driver to start enjoying it. The SRI is keenly priced, handles well and is still one of the best looking superminis on the market – particularly after Ford’s not entirely successful facelift of the Fiesta – but in every other respect it’s comprehensively outclassed not just by the Fiesta, but by Peugeot’s 208 as well.

 It’s got plenty to offer, but until Vauxhall’s new Corsa comes on stream next year I couldn’t really recommend it.

Vauxhall hots up the Zafira Tourer to offer up space and pace

IF YOU'RE the sort of person who likes sports car pace but needs MPV pace then Vauxhall might have just the thing for you.

The company has offered us hotted-up versions of its Zafira people carrier before - notably the GSi Turbo of the early noughties, and the VXR models which followed it - and the latest version, the BiTurbo, follows very much in that vein.

Closely related to the Astra and Insignia BiTurbo models, the Zafira Tourer BiTurbo uses a twin-turbocharged diesel engine which offers up no less than 195bhp, meaning that it'll shoot to sixty in 8.5 seconds before going on to a top speed of 135mph.

Duncan Aldred, Vauxhall’s managing director, said: "Vauxhall is currently the only manufacturer to offer a sophisticated BiTurbo engine on a seven-seat MPV.

"It provides a perfect blend of high performance, impressive fuel economy and premium class quality in a seven-seat layout."

This is exactly the sort of modern day performance motor that presses all the right Life On Cars buttons. It offers not only a blend of practicality and turbocharged punch, but it's as pleasing to behold as a people mover can be and - because its a turbodiesel rather than a petrol - should be a little cheaper to run than its more extreme predecessors. Like the Skoda Octavia vRS and the sportier diesel Mondeos, it's quick in an unaffordable, unpretentious sort of way. I only hope it's as much fun to drive as the cracking Meriva Turbo I tried a couple of years ago.

If this sounds like the sort of go-faster people carrier you'd like on your driveway, go into a Vauxhall dealership with £27,685 and a big smile later this spring.

Fire up the... Vauxhall Astra GTC

YOU know you're living in more stylish times when you can freely use “Vauxhall Astra” and “good looking” in the same sentence, but it's true. This new Vauxhall Astra is genuinely good looking.

There are, even if this aesthetically enlightened age plenty of cars you could call striking or challenging but the Astra GTC achieves something much more remarkable, it is one of those coupes that rings all the right visual eyes with almost everyone who takes it in.

Then again, twenty years ago the company's Calibra dissapointed drivers when it was launched, because under its equally striking skin were unexcitingly ordinary Cavalier mechanicals. In order to impress against the likes of Volkswagen's Scirocco and Hyundai's Veloster - which also offer sleek coupe lines with a hint of hatchback practicality - it'll have to offer substance to back its style up.

Like the Veedub and the Hyundai, the GTC's really more of a three-door hatchback with added glitz than a truly no compromises coupe, and while that means you might lose a little in glamour what you gain is big practicality, with genuinely useful headroom and legroom inside, even in the back, where most of its rivals lose out.

The 1.7 diesel version I tried offers plenty of punch too - it's a shame about the slightly tractoresque soundtrack you get when you start it up, but the tradeoff is a claimed 62 to the gallon and lots of low down torque to play with. Even more impressively, it's well equipped, coming with no less than six airbags and a stash of gadgets as standard.

Is it worth spending your £21,200 on? If you're looking for something with a lot of pose factor probably not - it's attractive but not attention-grabbingly so and interior's little staid for all its solidity, but if you're looking for a great looking car which appeals to your head and heart in equal measure it's well worth a look.

I'd still go for a Scirocco first but if the VW's not your bag, you'll love it.

An open letter to Adam Vauxhall

DEAR Adam,

I thought I'd use my motoring column this week to write you, the new Vauxhall that's being pitched squarely at the MINI and the Fiat 500, an open letter.

Your creators have given you a human name to make you a bit more cute and cuddly, as though you're a beloved family friend rather than a tonne of metal on the driveway outside. You're emphatically not ‘the Adam'. You're just Adam, which I suppose saves people having to come up with their own pet names for you.

A couple of car fans I know have already been a bit cruel about you - why, they ask, have your creators broken into Ford's offices, cheekily photcopied the designs for the original Ka, and then tried to hide the crime by adding a couple of styling cues from other Vauxhall models? There's also the motoring press wondering how you'll compete with the cachet of the MINI Cooper and the Fiat 500, surely your closest competitors when you arrive in the showrooms next year. But, more than anything, it's your name that's got people flummoxed.

It's alright, I understand. On the continent you're sold as Adam Opel, which means you're named in honour of the man who set up one of Germany's oldest car companies. It's a bit like that time when millionaire hedonists were offered the chance to buy an Enzo Ferrari a couple of years ago, but the problem is that there never was a Brit motoring pioneer called Adam Vauxhall. In this country at least, the historical reference is completely lost on buyers.

Does it matter? Not, I reckon, if you offer your potential new owners the trick MINI, the Fiat 500 and Alfa's MiTo make their schtick; solid underpinnings dressed up in stylish clothes and garnished with a fun-to-drive feel. A trendy title is only half the story, which is why Chrysler's PT Cruiser left us cynical Brits, looking for substance to match the style, a bit cold. The new MINI, on the other hand, would still be brilliant even if it looked like a fridge rather than a ripoff of a cult classic. It offers an awful lot more than an evocative badge and a pretty face.

It's a shame, Adam, you weren't given a cooler-sounding moniker, but I look forward to finding out soon what you can bring to the small car table.



Best regards,


David Simister, Life On Cars

Fire up the... Vauxhall Ampera

THIS eco-warrior has an electric motor. It also packs a good old fashioned petrol engine. So the new Ampera's a hybrid, right?

Not quite, Vauxhall reckon. I'll apologise for getting so blatantly and boringly technical this soon into a review but it's important you know why the Ampera, this year's European Car of the Year, does what it does. A hybrid like, say, a Toyota Prius or a Honda Insight, is powered by a petrol engine which uses electric energy to help it run more efficiently.

The Vauxhall's contender (and its sister car, the Chevrolet Volt) is one you'll appreciate if you're a train buff - it's an electric vehicle which uses a petrol engine not to power its wheels, but to recharge its batteries. It is, in trainspotter speak, a petrol-electric. Not nodded off yet, then?

The upshot of all that electric wizardry is that the Ampera can do something no other electric car can. It can run on amps alone for 35 miles - more, Vauxhall reckons, than most of us regularly commute - so you can happily pop to the shops in it during the week not burning any fuel at all, plug it into the mains when you get back and sit back, smiling smugly because you're helping to mend the holes in the ozone layer. The clever bit, though, is that once you get past that it'll call on Esso's finest to keep going, meaning the 1.4 litre engine normally sat on the sub's bench is able to get you to Aunt Mabel's house in Aberdeen just like any other car could. Try doing that in your Nissan LEAF.

Normally, it's the price that unravels it all but while at £30,000 the Ampera costs about the same as the high end versions of Vauxhall's own Insignia it's the same sort of car - a big, generously equipped saloon, even if it's got a dashboard straight out of the 1980s. It's even nice to drive in a comfy, cosseting sort of way, with plenty of room upfront and in the back.

The Ampera isn't an electric car in the truest sense of the word but instead manages to be something much better; an eco-friendly express that makes sense. It's an environmentalist statement disguised as a really good car.

The Renault Twizy and Vauxhall Ampera are electric cars you might actually want to buy

IT was, to get the obvious puns out of the way, a shocking conclusion. Out of a host of brand new cars I've just driven the most impressive were the electric ones.

You'll already know that in the noble interests of Champion research I headed down to the motor industry's annual test drive day at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire last week - think of it as speed dating, just with cars rather than potential partners - and got to put a host of different motors through their paces, all of which you'll be able to read about in these pages over the coming weeks. Everything from the Jaguar XKR-S to the Fiat Panda's been given the Simister treatment.

Yet what surprised me most of all were two very different - but boldly brilliant - electric models. At the same event two years ago I drove a MINI of the volt-powered variety and concluded the world of electric cars needed to come on in leaps and bounds - and it has. The little Citroen C-Zero I drove last year nearly did it (ridiculous pricetag aside), but it's Renault's Twizy and Vauxhall's Ampera that I reckon are the game changers. Both of them pass the most crucial test of all. The “Would you actually buy one?” question.

Yes, I know the Ampera's got a petrol engine but it's emphatically not a hybrid - it is an electric car that occasionally uses a petrol engine to charge it up, which until they sort out the refuelling issues is the only way to make ‘leccy vehicles even mildly practical. Should you wake up tomorrow with a sudden urge to drive it to Inverness, there's nothing stopping you. Not even the price. It costs roughly the same as the Insignia, but that doesn't matter because it's roughly the same sort of car.

It's a hugely impressive bit of kit but it's not the first electric vehicle I've driven with a definite ‘want one' factor - that honour goes to Renault's faintly ridiculous Twizy. Think of it as a car and yes, it's rubbish, but think of it as the spiritual successor to all those bubble cars that bumbled around Britain in the Fifties and Sixties and it's spot on. It's a scooter for people who are scared of falling off. Oh, and as far as I know it's the only car this side of a Lamborghini Aventador which comes with scissor doors. It is, for want for of a better word, hilarious.

I don't think Renault, keen to be seen as an innovator of all things electric, were that happy though with my suggestion after my test drive. Wouldn't it be fun to fit it with a superbike engine?

SMMT Test Day 2012 at Millbrook Proving Ground - a flavour of what's on the way

 

THE slightly guttural cough that accompanies the bellow of Jaguar’s supercharged V8, fitted to the frantic XKR-S someone had foolishly lent me, was worth the trip alone.

The sun has been shining on the nation’s road testers today – literally, as temperatures soared into the high twenties – at this year’s SMMT Test Day. Even though it meant setting the alarm clock for a depressingly early 4am it’s always worth the journey to the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, partly because it’s an incredible automotive playground in any car, but also because it’s a chance to find out more about some of 2012’s most important new arrivals.

I’ve put no less than 20 different cars through their paces and there’ll be more on here and in The Champion over the next couple of weeks, but to whet your appetite I can offer you a few snippets of automotive enlightenment I’ve picked up:

• The Jaguar XKR-S doesn’t need to have a supercharged 5.3 litre V8 pumping out 542bhp, but boy am I glad it does... 

• The electric entrants are getting better each year – in 2010 I was, er, shocked by what I drove, in 2011 I found a car that I would’ve liked if it hadn’t been cripplingly expensive, but this year I’ve found two that I’d actually buy. With money and everything! 

• I just couldn’t warm to one of this year’s most eagerly-awaited motors, no matter how hard I tried. Clue: it’s got three doors (or is it four?).

• It was a choice of testing 20 cars or queuing, Alton Towers style, to try just one; Subaru’s BRZ, which attracted queues of salivating journalists throughout the day. I’ve no doubt it could be the driver’s hit of the decade but the Life On Cars treatment will have to wait until another day... 

• ...as will a review of Vauxhall’s loopy Maloo pick-up (pictured above, next to the rather fetching vintage Vauxhall) which broke down and got withdrawn from the event just minutes before I was due to have a go. What a rotten bit of luck! Chances are, though, it'll be an awful lot like the VXR8 saloon I tested at Millbrook last year.

• The rebadged batch of Lancias that Chrysler’s taken into its showrooms are a bit of mixed bunch – but the good news is there’s an absolute gem among ‘em.
  
• Nobody I spoke to agreed on their winner of the great city car battle of 2012: Fiat Panda vs Up/Citigo/Mii. I’ll let you know my verdict in the next few weeks.

• It’s still possible to make a bad car, even in this day and age. I know, because I drove at least one today. 

• Chevrolet really ought to make the Camaro in right-hand-drive – it’s a great car for cruising around Wild West Lancashire! 

With variety being the spice of life I was keen to make sure that I didn't just stick to the shiny supercars (tempting though it was), and try and test a broad variety of cars that are significant in one way or other this year. That's why the 19 cars I drove included a Fiat, two VWs, two Chryslers, two Jaguars, a Land Rover, a Suzuki, a SEAT, a Ssangyong, two Vauxhalls, a Renault, a MINI, a BMW, two Hyundais and a Chevrolet. 

I’ll keep you posted...

Would you Adam and Eve it? The quirky name for the new baby Vauxhall

ARE you the sort of person who gives your pride and joy a name, like you would a pet?

Don't worry, you're in good company if you do - as an enthusiast, I've always thought giving a name to a car shows you've formed an emotional attachment to it, which is why in true Gone In Sixy Seconds tradition all the sportier motors I've owned have always had girls' names. Richard Hammond infamously christened an old Opel as Oliver on an episode of Top Gear after he got attached to it. Plenty of people I know have given all sorts of cars all sorts of names.

Vauxhall, with their new small car, have decided to go a step further and actually name it for you. Their new hatchback, on sale, next year, is not a Corsa or an Agila. It is called Adam!

Adam is the company's answer to what the car industry calls the ‘premium urban hatchback' - in plain English the likes of the MINI and the Fiat 500, which over the past decade have proved runaway hits for the companies which created them. In the past few years plenty of companies have tried the same trick of putting executive car luxuries into supermini-sized packages, with Alfa Romeo offering you the MiTo, Audi the A1 and Citroen the DS3.

Although few details of the car's looks or specification are available at the moment - word is that it'll be unveiled officially at this year's Paris Motorshow in the autumn - the car will be pricier than the larger Corsa model and have an emphasis on offering a premium feel to the interior, a sportier drive and more of an emphasis on styling. Adam will be offered as a four-seat, three-door hatchback, and is rumoured to be around the same size as the current MINI.

The company is aiming to attract more affluent, image-conscious customers who would currently consider the likes of the MINI and the 500, but are turned off by the current Corsa and Agila.

Will you be welcoming Adam with open arms? Do you give your cars names? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below...

Fire up the... Vauxhall Insignia VXR

THERE was a cracking piece in The Champion a couple of weeks ago about a man who used to keep a lion in his back garden every night.

Admittedly he did work for Southport Zoo but he still must be one of the few prepared to put up with a hard-earned reputation as one of the world's most ferocious and powerful predators, in a world where most people would opt for a slightly tamer tabby as a pet. It's exactly the same scenario with the Vauxhall VXR8 I tested earlier this year. I absolutely loved the growl from its V8 engine and its leopard-like talent for sheer speed, but it's a beast I'd struggle to own. It really is using a nuclear warhead to crack a nut.

Vauxhall however realise this and have just the thing for speed freaks grounded in reality, in the sleek shape of the Insignia VXR. As nutcrackers go this is one I doubt you'll be dissappointed with; it really is one of the world's great ground coverers.

Take the VXR8 out for a spin and it feels as though it's constantly on the verge of exploding into a surge of shotgun acceleration, which is exciting when you're in the mood for it but I'd imagine would start to grate slightly on the Monday morning commute. The Insignia's 2.8 V6 is much better, being docile and quiet enough for everyday jobs but you always know that you've no less than 325bhp at your disposal, ready to deploy at the slightest twitch of the right foot. It's particularly handy on motorways, where it'll effortlessly cruise for miles at a time.

But where the range-topping Insignia really shines is when you hunker down into its bucket seats and set if off along a twisty country road, where its four wheel drive and the composure of its chassis really starts to shine. For such a big car it really is a delight to drive, and with plenty of room and gizmos insides it's unlikely your passengers are going to start complaining.

You might think the VXR's £36,000 is its biggest problem but in fact it's its styling; the Insignia is a finely styled saloon, but somehow I can't help thinking the VXR cosmetics make it look like it was made by Nike rather than Vauxhall. Park it up next to say, a Jag XF and it's knocked for six in terms of style and prestige.

But you would have said the same thing about the Lotus Carlton twenty years ago, a car that's gone onto become a classic on account of its ability to effortlessly devour any road it comes across in a way which puts a huge smile on your face.

The Insignia VXR follows in that noble tradition, which is why I'd have one over its cartoonish big brother any day.

Fire up the... Saab 9-5

IT'S a company that - despite a proud history of its products proving popular - seems to go from crisis to crisis.

No, it's not News International but Saab, the Swedish car company which only a few weeks ago narrowly avoided closure after it got a huge order from China. An order that'll include the impressive second generation of the 9-5.

This car, a distant cousin of Vauxhall's acclaimed Insignia, is the model which will make or break Saab's future, and if it's going to succeed it's got some very strong competition to see off. Is the 9-5, which starts at a shade over £27,000, good enough to tempt you away from not only the BMW 5-Series, but also a revitalised Jaguar XF and Audi's A6?

The good news is that you shouldn't let its General Motors origins put you off; not only is the Insignia a startingly good base to start off, being an impressive cruiser in its own right, but the 9-5 is sufficiently Saab-ish in its own right.

Thanks to an ergonomically-gifted dashboard all of its own, clever toys like the night function for the instruments and an exterior that's challenging without being ugly, you're in no doubt that the new Saab is light years ahead of its predecessor.

Yet it's successfully carried over the one thing I adored about the old model - the comfort. Even though the model I tried was the 2.8 diesel version, it's near-silent once you get up to speed and the seats, front and back, are among the comfiest I've ever experienced. If you're an executive who regularly gets a numb bum, this is the car for you.

It's just a shame that - at least on the particular car I tested - builld quality wasn't quite up to the standards of its rivals, with a chrome surrounding on one of the rear doors coming loose. I can only hope it's an isolated incident, but even then you'd have to concede the bunker-like BMW 5-Series feels more solid.

The 9-5 might not tick as many of the boxes as its rivals but feels somehow more engaging for it; what it lacks as an all-rounder in makes up for in personality, which this saloon has in spades. If you're in the market for an executive saloon but find the big sellers a bit boring, you won't be disappointed with this leftfield alternative.

We should do our bit to save Saab, because they make good cars.