Vauxhall Adam Jam: Test Drive Review

Vauxhall is attempting to replicate the success of the Fiat 500 and Mini with its new Adam city car, a vehicle for ‘post-modern urbanites’.

That statement gives a picture of the kind of audience Vauxhall is targeting, and it’s a retail-focused one with the firm stating that just 7% of the predicted 10,700 registrations in a full year will go into fleet, most of which will be either public sector fleets or into salary sacrifice schemes.

The Adam is very well equipped and significantly outpoints rivals, with even the entry Jam model driven here offered with alloys, DAB, Bluetooth and cruise control. The intention, again highlighting the retail focus, is to draw people in and walk them through the trim levels and huge amount of personlisation that means there are supposedly four billion combinations of specification, combining 60,000 exterior combinations and 80,000 interior.

One option that should interest all buyers is the Technical pack that costs £600 and, if Vauxhall is to be believed, will bring a £600 RV uplift. It offers rear parking sensors, tyre pressure monitoring and the Intellilink system that Vauxhall claims is an industry first. A seven-inch LCD screen reproduces everything from a smartphone – from music and video to contact details – and will combine with a new navigation app that should cost less than £50 to offer what Vauxhall claims is by far the cheapest integrated navigation system.

It’s a shame Vauxhall is persisting with stop/start as an option, costing £250 on the Adam. It brings the CO2 on this entry 70hp 1.2 petrol model down from 124g/km to 118g/km.

The Adam is decent to drive, and rides as well as its peers, which all suffer from issues connected to having such a short wheelbase. The car’s competitive on RVs, too, with 34.4% compared to the equivalent Fiat 500’s 39.6% and a Mini One’s 36.6%. It’s also pretty, with enough appeal to not necessarily need the ‘try-hard’ marketing and personalisation that attempt to  portray it as the next big trend.