The forthcoming Vauxhall Viva is a car announced by General Motors subsidiary Vauxhall to hit British shores in mid-2015. It is to be a small, economic city car with a small price tag, replacing the void that will be left behind from the Chevrolet Spark as Chevrolet Europe widely pulls out of the market.
The Viva is also to be sold as the Opel Karl, and Australian media has high hopes that the little hatch will make its way over there, perhaps as the next Holden Barina Spark. But, is that possible?
Maybe. For one thing, the 2015 Viva and Karl even share underpinnings with the next-generation 2015 Chevrolet Spark, which will most likely reveal itself sometime next year. For now, we can speculate. The Viva will probably be the recipient of a range of small-displacement (1.4 liter and smaller) 3- and 4-cylinder engines from General Motors, though who knows whether it could receive a hybrid powertrain, as well.
Comments
The question is: will the future Holden Barina Spark (or the successor to the current one) be a replica of the next generation Chevrolet Spark, or of the Opel Karl or Vauxhall Viva, respectively?
Behind this is the general question: will Holden be aligned more with the Chevrolet line or the Buick/Opel line? Or try to combine both?
I expect a Chevy-Opel hybrid line-up. The choice between a Chevy or an Opel will come down to sales and segment popularity. So by that I suspect the Astra and Insignia will be imported but the Sonic and Spark will remain. Sonic (current-gen) was designed by an Aussie and Holden may want to use that as a marketing point. One thing for sure is Holden wouldn’t use the Viva name if they were smart. Between Astra and Cruze, there was the rebadged Daewoo called Holden Viva and it was a dog and everyone knew it, even Holden. That’s propably why the diameter of the badge was 2cm.
What Holden desperately needs (in RHD):
– Opel Astra in sedan, hatch and wagon
– Opel Isignia (Malibu has tanked here as predicted by Holden fans, Isignia wins some over being an Opel)
– Chevy Equinox (Captiva variant is CRAP)
– GMC Acadia (Holden has no proper medium SUV & segment price range means the GMC’s extra features should be included)
– NA Spec Chevy Colorado & GMC Canyon (Global Colorado lacks features for the money and interior design is too commercial. Competes with the Isuzu D-Max a.k.a the same vehicle just badge engineered)
– Chevy Impala (Insignia is too small to replace Commodore and lacks features)
I have seen the New Spark and it’s a great car but $18000 on the road with an automatic even with help from the government,relatives and low work pay is a lot without borrowing from the bank.If I can live with buying used I could get when the time comes to move on from my existing Nissan a latest version not too old though of say a VW POLO OR EVEN GO A SIZE BIGGER FOR A CURRENT SHAPE COROLLA OR MAZDA 3.Don’t feel confident with light cars given with future work mileage is nothing but condition is.I love these light cars but you lose a lot on depreciation