Chevrolet Kalos 1.2
If you were to design a template for the perfect city car, there would be a number of criteria youd need to hit. The most obvious ones would be that the car in question must be compact, manoeuvrable and economical. Thats the easy part. It also needs to be light in order to be quick off the mark but without feeling so flimsy that suburban mum in her Range Rover is in imminent danger of crushing you.
Add cheeky styling, low cost of minor body repairs and an attractive up front price and you should have a winner on your hands. Chevrolet certainly hope so in the pert shape of the Kalos 1.2-litre range, offered with three as well as five doors.
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2-litre guise, its a striking thing. The front end is quite unlike any other production car, the huge headlights striking in their clear glass lenses with indicators that are arranged almost like eyelashes. The flanks of the Kalos are marked with three competing attention seekers. Firstly theres a swage line across the front door that heads rapidly south as soon as it encounters the rear doors.
The front wheelarches are rounded, but the rears have a squared off blister above them which really shouldnt work but does. Finally theres a strange, almost vestigial, third window at the side that Chevrolet claims, "optically loosens the rear of the car." Make of that what you will. The 1.2-litre engine is built around an alloy cylinder head and a traditional iron block and develops 72bhp which is a few more than a Skoda Fabia 1.4 can muster.
Its pretty quick, accelerating through 60mph in 13 seconds although outright sprinting ability is hardly the cars forte. Instead it majors on being easy to drive and all of the controls are light and idiot-proof. A combined fuel return of some 42.8mpg makes it competitive with some of the best in class and a CO2 emissions showing of 159g/km is par for the course.
As part of General Motors, Chevrolet have had their pick of parts from across the empire and have turned to Suzuki for this 1.2-litre powerplant. It was a wise move. The engine thrives on revs and its only out on the open road that it can feel a bit breathless.
In town the engine ticks all the boxes.
"The Giugiaro design studio has done a good job with the Kalos and even in entry-level 1.2-litre guise, its a striking thing"
Features such as power steering and central locking make the Kalos 1.2 a low-hassle car. The steering column tilts through a generous range of adjustment and the front seat belts can be adjusted for height. With punchy anti-lock brakes and dual front airbags fitted as standard along with height adjustable headrests, clear side indicators and rear coat hooks, this Kalos certainly doesnt feel built down to a price.
Talking of prices, youll pay £7,195 for the three-door S version or £7,695 for the air-conditioned five-door 1.2 SE version. Naming a car after the Greek word for beautiful may be tempting fate a little but Chevrolets Kalos looks to be able to carry it off. Part of the latest generation of superminis that attempt to cram as many MPV-style ideas as possible into their truncated dimensions, the Kalos is notably better looking than many previous attempts at this genre.
Small wonder, as it was styled by Giugiaro in Turin, a design house of no little repute. The styling is certainly eye catching, although the exterior contours have not been penned at the expense of practicality. This is, after all, a Chevrolet and must offer value for money twinned with common sense utility that buyers can relate to. One drawback is the lack of a diesel option in the Kalos line-up, though the importers dont see it that way.
When you actually look at the extra upfront cost of diesel variants over their petrol-powered counterparts, they point out, you end up having to cover quite a mileage in order to make the extra cost pay off. And supermini buyers dont tend to cover large mileages. They dont tend to like paying over the odds either, so asking prices around £2,000 less than an equivalent Ford Fiesta should come as welcome news. The passenger compartment is extremely spacious, due in no small part to the 2.
48 metre wheelbase - one of the longest in the supermini class. Chevrolet claim the 955 millimetres of headroom to be a class best. The rear seat splits in the normal 60/40 manner but also has a trick up its sleeve. You can not only fold it down, but also jack-knife it forward and secure it to the back of the front seats.
This little party trick frees up a cavernous 735 litres of available luggage space, in effect more than quadrupling the usual capacity of 175 litres with the rear parcel shelf in place. Ride and handling have been optimised for British roads at the Motor Industry Research Association test track near Nuneaton. Chevrolet is one of the first manufacturers to cotton onto the fact that what works on billiard-smooth German roads often seems a little less than optimal on the sort of British B-road that has been ravaged by the gas, telephone, electricity and cable TV companies. The Chevrolet Kalos 1.
2 looks set to be the most popular pick of the range. With an impressive, economical engine and keen pricing, it has what it takes to upset a few apple carts. The perfect city car? Not quite, but itll do for now.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Chevrolet Kalos 1.2 range
PRICES: £7,195-£7,695 on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 4
CO2 EMISSIONS: 159g/km
PERFORMANCE: Max Speed 102mph / 0-60mph 13s
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (urban) 33.6mpg/ (extra urban) 51.4mpg/ (combined) 42.8mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front airbags, ABS, Isofix child seats.
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height, 3880/1670/1490mm
