Opel christens MINI-fighter 'Adam'

Less than three months before General Motors launches it as a separate sister brand to Holden in Australia, Opel has announced its all-new small premium hatchback will go by the name Adam.

Opel says the left-field nameplate, which is also the Christian name of the founder of Adam Opel AG, was chosen for its universal yet neutral appeal globally.

Revealed within a cheeky cartoon strip featuring members of the GM Europe team that developed the car, which has hitherto been known as 'Junior', the Adam name will be worn by versions from both Opel and its UK sister brand Vauxhall.

Two official 'spy' shots of the Junior -- a name deemed too 'immature' for the its all-new 'premium urban car' -- were released alongside the cartoon, representing the first step in a staggered media reveal campaign ahead of a global public debut at the Paris motor show in September.

Opel Australia is yet to confirm Adam's release locally -- where the light-size Corsa hatch, small Astra hatch and wagon, cool Astra GTC coupe and mid-size Insignia sedan and wagon will go on sale in August -- but says it would be considered for local introduction.

"It's a fantastic car," Opel Australia head of marketing and public relations Michelle Lang told motoring.com.au. "It's exciting for the brand globally, (but) it's something that's just not part of our launch plans and certainly not something that's in our immediate future.

"Obviously we do consider everything that comes out of Europe very carefully, but that one's a little down the track for us. It's certainly garnered a lot of interest, but we've got our hands pretty full.

"We're really focussed on the launch and then the immediate product that's coming, we're appointing dealers -- there's a lot going on. We've got a couple of other possibly more relevant things consider before that one."

Australian sales of Opel's pint-size Mokka mini-SUV and a host of performance-oriented OPC models are already under study, but if approved for local release Adam would not arrive here until 2014 following its European release next year.

Overnight Opel also confirmed its upmarket cityu-car -- which it describes as colourful, muscular, fun and cool -- will measure just 3.7 metres long, making it the same length as Mini's Cooper hatch and just 25mm shorter than the Corsa.

Unlike the Corsa, however, it will be available only as a three-door model with four seats, just like the Mini hatch and other prestige light-car competitors including the Fiat 500 and Citroen DS3.

While Audi's range-opening A1 will also become available here in five-door Sportback guise, expect Adam to be priced in line with those models from about $30,000, making it more expensive than both the base Corsa and Astra.

Based on a new platform that was engineered by GM in Korea and will underpin the next-generation Corsa, Adam will be produced exclusively at Opel's Eisenach plant in Germany.

Expect power to come from frugal new three-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, although four-cylinder performance variants and, by 2015, all-electric versions are due to follow.

Opel stressed that, like its four chief rivals, the German-engineered Adam would be available with an extensive list of cosmetic personalisation options designed to attract the same youthful, well-heeled audience.