Currently reading: Paris motor show 2010: Opel city car 'won't be cheap'

New city car for 2013 won't be a budget offering, according to the firm's design boss

General Motors Europe has confirmed at the Paris motor show that it will indeed introduce an all-new supermini in 2013.

According to Opel-Vauxhall design boss Mark Adams, the design of the car is well underway. It will be a "chic, youthful city car," he told us, built at Opel's Eisenach factory in Germany.

Read more on the new Opel city car

However, Opel-Vauxhall is set to surprise by pitching the car at a semi-premium price point. "Certain quarters of the media are expecting this to be a budget offering," Adams explained, "but it'll be anything but."

"We're looking to build the image of our Opel and Vauxhall brands with this car; to show that we can make stylish, desirable and emotional small cars, too."

Adams went on to suggest that the new supermini will be much closer on positioning to a Fiat 500, Citroën DS3 or Mini than a Citroen C1 or a Fiat Panda. "It will be smaller but also more desirable and more expensive than Corsa; not cheaper," he said.

Matt Saunders

Join our WhatsApp community and be the first to read about the latest news and reviews wowing the car world. Our community is the best, easiest and most direct place to tap into the minds of Autocar, and if you join you’ll also be treated to unique WhatsApp content. You can leave at any time after joining - check our full privacy policy here.

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce PhantomTesla RoadsterAriel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren SennaRenault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.

Join the debate

Comments
12
Add a comment…
evanstim 4 October 2010

Re: Opel city car 'won't be cheap'

So in other words, it's GM's answer to the Toyota IQ.

michael knight 4 October 2010

Re: Opel city car 'won't be cheap'

WFC Holden wrote:
but I don't recall seeing many A-listers clambering out of them...

True..though Kylie promoted the StreetKa...proves your point I guess!

LP in Brighton 4 October 2010

Re: Opel city car 'won't be cheap'

A good start would be to market this car in the UK as an Opel. It would also help differentiate it from the cheap and cheerful Agila which presumably Vauxhall will continue to sell.