Geneva motor show: Opel Karl city car due this summer

Opel’s new city car makes its world debut tomorrow ahead of a summer arrival in Irish showrooms. The Karl is filling a gap in the brand’s market last filled by the Agila, although the German brand is eager to point out that this is funkier than its functional predecessor.

That said, while it has some smart little touches to its exterior and an interior that’s on a par with the popular new Adam model, the fact it’s a five-door format only with impressive headroom will not be lost on the former Agila market, made up largely of older buyers.

Built in Korea, the profile of the car has a look similar to models from Asian rivals, though the front nose is strongly branded with an Opel grille. In such a price-conscious segment, where every cent counts the Karl is sharing its production line with the Chevrolet Spark. That makes sense for the Spark - nor Chevrolet - is not sold in Europe. The Karl shares its underpinnings with the small Chevrolet, but was developed in Germany and the interior is very much taken from recent Opel small cars.

Engineers claim the Karl has class-leading statistics in terms of rear-seat legroom and headroom. While we didn’t get out the measuring tape, there is certainly enough room for a tall adult back there. And while the profile shows a relatively low roofline the headroom is surprisingly good. Round the back, the bootspace is relatively small but the rear seats do fold down to offer over 1,000 litres. First impressions suggest it is more spacious than one of its main rivals in this segment, the VW Up.

Up front is Opel’s new 1-litre three-cylinder engine, a powertrain recently introduced in the Corsa. This time however Opel has foregone the turbo to keep down the price so the output is 75bhp. It is claiming an emissions level of 99g/km with fuel economy of 4.3 l/100km (66mpg).

With price all-important in this category it's expected the Karl will arrive in Ireland with prices in the region of €12,000, though that has yet to be confirmed. Two trim levels are also due for the Irish models. However unlike the Adam, the focus for Karl is not going to be on personalisation as much as value.