Skip advert
Advertisement

Vauxhall Adam review - stylish, but is it fun? - Performance and 0-60 time

Vauxhall’s Adam has style but lacks substance

Evo rating
RRP
from £11,860
  • Almost infinite personalisation options, appealing looks and interior
  • Occasionally tough ride, Fiat 500 and MINI are nicer cars

As city cars first and foremost, regular Adams aren’t designed to be road rockets, so the normally aspirated engines have modest outputs and performance data. All are 16-valve four-cylinder fuel-injected petrol units with variable valve timing (VVT), aside from the 1.0 EcoTec which is a three-cylinder engine.

A 69bhp 1.2i kicks off with a leisurely 0-62mph benchmark sprint of 14.9 seconds, although it can crack the ton at 102mph flat out. The 86bhp 1.4i improves those stats to 12.5 seconds and 110mph, while the more powerful 1.4i with 99bhp – only available in Slam models – records 11.5 seconds and 115mph.

Hence why we’d fork out the extra for the 1.0 EcoTec wherever possible (it’s around £2,000 more than the 1.2 across all trims), which takes the Adam into sub-10 second territory for the 0-62mph sprint at 9.9 seconds and increases top speed to 121mph. But it’s not just pub-bragging numbers that makes the triple such a great engine. It revs with real zing, making extending it out to the 6500rpm limiter a pleasure, while it will happily pull fourth gear uphill from as little as 1400rpm without grumbling. It of course carries all the aural benefits of a three-pot compared to a four, too.

Advertisement - Article continues below

The 1.4 turbo in the Vauxhall Adam S (known, confusingly, as the Grand Slam for a brief period, before reverting back to the slightly more sensible S moniker) is a fine motor, elevating the Adam into warm hatch circles with 0-62mph in 8.5 seconds and a top speed of 130mph.

Skip advert
Advertisement
Skip advert
Advertisement

Most Popular

£15k off the price of a new Porsche 911
Porsche 911 deal 2025
News

£15k off the price of a new Porsche 911

A base 911 might now cost over £100k, but there are sturdily-optioned examples already built that you won’t pay any more for
29 May 2025
The new BMW M2 CS could be another all-time great M car
BMW M2 CS – front
News

The new BMW M2 CS could be another all-time great M car

BMW has applied the CS treatment to the G87 M2 – if it’s anything like its predecessor, it’ll be sensational
27 May 2025
A new V12-engined Italian hypercar has arrived, and it makes the Ferrari F80 look tame
Giamaro Katla – front
News

A new V12-engined Italian hypercar has arrived, and it makes the Ferrari F80 look tame

Modena-based Giamaro Automobili has launched the Katla – a bespoke, quad-turbo V12 hypercar with nearly 1000bhp more than Ferrari’s F80…
27 May 2025