I drive between 100 to 130 kms a day. I spend a very large portion of my day behind the wheel. While I’d love to be driving something snazzy I tend to look at cars that are safe, reliable and that can handle A LOT of abuse. I call it abuse because I have no other way to describe Jozi traffic. My biggest gripe is the amount of shiny buttons lacking from the cars that can cope with the abuse. They tend to be your standard radio, aircon and central locking without much else. Because no one is paying more for, well, more.
That’s why the little Opel Adam may just be a game changer in its class.
I know what you’re thinking… cool marketing video Sam but why do we care? The car critic in you can check out the specs for the vehicle here and I can try sell it to you by telling you it is fully customisable so you can match the colours to your personality and add funky side mirror colours. But I don’t want to do that.
What I do want to do is highlight some of the fun tech sitting in this car because if, like me, you spend a lot of time in traffic, the shiny buttons become your best friend. The Opel Adam costs less than R200 000 but has some rather fun gadgets and tech to accompany you on your travels or, in my case, during my time sitting in traffic getting angry. Take a look:
- Safety first. The Opel Adam is the first in its class to have dual seatbelt pre-tensions on the front seats and LED Daylight Running Lights
- It comes with ultrasonic based Side Blind Zone Alert (for those times you forget to check your blind spot)
- Ever stalled on a hill and cringed, knowing that you’re going to have to burn your poor clutch and over rev your engine so as not to roll back and hit the car behind you? (This has, of course, never happened to me). The Opel Adam has something called Hill Start Assist which stops that little embarrassing incident from happening.
- Now we all know your radio is pretty much your best friend, next to your phone. So the IntelliLink inside the car will make you rather happy. It’s a 7” colour touch screen on the dash that links up with your Android or iOS smartphone to supply you with music, videos, photos and maps. I’m still questioning the practicality of a photo and video sharing option but IntelliLink also integrates with Siri Eyes Free so you can control your phone and the entertainment in the car via voice commands.
- The entertainment system also has an on-board navigation system called BringGo Nav that links to your phone and works with Stitcher and TuneIn (both of those are apps that give you access to tens of thousands of podcasts and radio stations worldwide).
That’s a lot of shiny buttons and fun gadgets in a little car. My current ride has a radio… that’s about it. Bummer.
The Open Adam launched in SA this past weekend (17 and 18 January). You can take the little guy for a spin as well. Book a test drive here.
