There are worse ways to spend an unseasonly hot afternoon than driving around Switzerland in a Camaro convertible. I found myself doing this as part of a group flown in to sample four models that will be in European showrooms in the coming months. More of that in a moment.
Switzerland, it turns out, is the birthplace of one Louis Chevrolet and our drives of the new cars took us to the town he hails from, La Chaux de Fonds. The cars were the Camaro coupe and convertible which will finally reach the UK (left-hand drive only) in March, two months after the Aveo diesel. The other two newcomers are the Cruze hatchback which Chevrolet Europe is marketing as a separate model to the existing sedan, plus the Volt, which reaches this part of the world in December.
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Starting with the Camaro, it’s a glorious irrelevance in continental Europe, as it will be in Britain. By that I simply mean that in a world where CO2 averages and miles per gallon now matter so much, the Camaro’s 6.2-litre V8 is, shall we say, a slight embarrassment if you’re economy minded. To drive it, you soon see that it’s a touch wide for negotiating your way around tight city streets but against that, the ride on cobblestones and tram tracks was surprisingly compliant.
You don’t buy a Camaro to potter about backstreets in, of course, so I must add that on the Swiss autoroutes, and keeping an eye on the national 120km/h limit, it excelled. Engine noise was magnificent and even top down in the convertible, not at all wearing.
The Camaro’s fabric roof is simplicity itself to lower and fits tightly when raised, while playing spot-the-generic GM bits in the interior whilst sitting in the traffic can be fun. Steering wheel, audio equipment, column stalks and so on are shared with the Aveo, Cruze and other lower-priced models but then you could say the same thing about the VW Polo and various high-priced Audis.
What matters most about the Camaro’s interior is that the days of cheap and nasty generic GM products are clearly gone: Chevrolet GB can be proud of the Camaro’s interior fit and fittings, even when the car will cost £35,000 (just under £40,000 for the convertible). Would I have one? Definitely. But perhaps not the six-speed manual as the sharp-ish clutch could become tiring in traffic. The super-smooth self-shifting option, which I tried in a Camaro coupe, would be my preference.
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By GlobalDataFrom the grunt and burble of the Camaro to a car which will be far more important for Chevrolet’s market share growth in this region, the Aveo diesel. Like Fiat, which also uses it, GM calls this 1,248cc four-cylinder engine a 1.3 but no matter about the questionable rounding up, it’s a great little unit. I tried the variant with stop-start and the system works well. The CO2 average for this one, by the way, is 95g/km.
Mark Terry, Chevrolet Great Britain’s managing director, points out that this car will, from January, give the brand its best shot yet at tackling the bigger European market players. I am still to drive a new Toyota Yaris but the Aveo stacks up well against the Hyundai i20, Kia Rio, Renault Clio, Peugeot 207 and Ford Fiesta. The interior might not have quite the same polish as the Polo, Fabia and Corsa but for what you pay, it’s a good package.
And so the car I really wanted to try, the Volt. The route started high in the alps and took me through towns and then on a long stretch of autoroute. The silence of electric running is something GM really should be making more of with this car – it somehow takes much of the stress out of traffic jams. But more than that, up steep inclines or overtaking tractors on rural roads, the combustion engine never became intrusive and only the tiniest rise in noise level tells you that petrol power has kicked in to boost the batteries’ range. Speaking of that, I saw 70km before the cells were exhausted, which is in line with Chevrolet’s claim of 40-80km.
I had been wondering what the Volt would be like to drive once it loses its EV power but it simply feels like any other small car with a CVT (the Prius comes to mind). There is, however, a little whirr as you pull away slowly from a junction so even when the cells are said to be shot, they clearly retain some juice for low-speed running. The 1.4-litre engine soon kicks in and there is absolutely no transmission shunt or other jerks – this is really a superbly engineered car.
I hesitate to criticise the Volt for its 1,700kg dry weight (the T-shaped battery pack is 200kg of that) but it would be easy to do so. The thing to remember with this car, as with the Nissan Leaf, is that someone had to take the first proper steps to bring EREVs and EVs to market. No doubt the second generation cars to come will be a fair bit less lardy and possibly a bit roomier too – the Volt is a four-seater only, though the boot is decently sized considering all the EV ancillaries that live beneath it.
So how to sum up a driving event as varied as this one? The Aveo is big improvement on the old-shape car and will definitely help Chevrolet towards that mid-term goal of a million sales in Europe, the Camaro is simply the most wonderful old-school muscle-car, and the Volt….is now my favourite current Chevy.
It’s a personal preference but one of the other things which make the Volt so appealing are its iPhone-esq white plastic trim that covers the door linings and dashboard. There is also a really cosy driving position which reminded me of how BMWs used to feel but sadly no longer do. The car glides in traffic like a Prius, but for me at least, it has none of the weirdly shaped and hard to the touch interior plastic and unresolved exterior styling elements that have turned me off all three generations of the petrol-electric Toyota.
Chevrolet GB’s Mark Terry, the man who could have a Camaro as his company car, told me he’s chosen to have a Volt. As much as my inner petrolhead would want to judge him for that, I just can’t. It’s a genuine step ahead car and until I drove it and saw it for myself, inside and out, I had been a doubter. No more.
Author: Glenn Brooks
