Vauxhall Adam review

Vauxhall is late to the city car party. Very late. So how to get a shoo-in to one of the UK’s most popular new car sectors? Why, take on the Mini with an all-new premium-priced three-door, that’s how. Bold? You bet. But here it is – a posh three-door city car based on a cut-down Corsa platform and sharing nothing with Vauxhall’s other dreadfully dull contender in this sector, the Agila. It’s been designed to offer Mini-like personalisation (more than a million configurations, reckons Vauxhall) and both the spec sheet and the marketing for the Adam are decidedly ‘lifestyle’.

Ah yes, the name. Adam. It makes more sense in Germany, where Opel founder Herr Opel’s first name was Adam. Here, it’s just a bit, well, odd, although you can’t deny it does give the car character.