Do you remember when every multinational automaker wanted to create a single car capable of competing on all the markets where it operates? That strategy never succeeded because the car market doesn’t work well with extremes; neither that nor having a particular line for each country. The latest releases converged into three big groups, each one sold in some countries. This article will give a brief explanation about them all, before pointing which one has just been increased with the latest Chevrolet to arrive in India.
Have you noticed how some cars take very short to become widely known? Large investments on publicity are one of the high-standard cars’ characteristics. Regardless of price or size, what joins names such as Cadillac CTS, Mitsubishi Lancer and Renault Clio into one same group is the fact of being focused on subjective aspects, such as style, luxury or sportiness. They usually bring the best technologies currently offered by the respective automakers and is very easy to see them breaking efficiency or performance records. The second group is much more conservative because those are the cars whose main purpose is to achieve large sales. You probably won’t ever see Peugeot 408, Nissan Micra or Fiat Linea featuring cutting-edge technologies nor excessively cheap projects because they’re used to reject any risky strategies: investing too much would end on unacceptable prices, while investing too little would end on unacceptable quality. Staying far from both extremes is the safest way to accomplish their intention of pleasing lots of clients, usually from several markets. Chevrolet’s brand new minivan, therefore, belongs to the third group. Enjoy has very much in common with Chevrolet Celta and Toyota Etios: it shows the good and the bad parts of being a true low-cost vehicle. The boxy silhouette, for instance, anticipates that styling wasn’t a priority.
It’s interesting to observe how disconnected are the shapes: the creases start and end alone, there’s no correspondence with Chevrolet’s current design language at all and some elements would be more suitable in the 1980s, not to mention the weird ones: the front bumper not only is almost plain as also seems to belong to a different car. However, another fact is that dropping sophisticated shapes reduces production and repairing costs, while boxy exteriors have proven themselves successful at both Dacia Logan and Fiat Uno’s original phases: this is the cheapest way of increasing the internal space. And changing the subject to the cabin means starting to expose Enjoy’s bright side: despite of the 4,3-m length, there are seven seats for standard and an available eighth. Technology in this car doesn’t mean more than two airbags, keyless entry, multimedia sound system and rear parking sensors, but the functionality comes with theater-style seating, Flexi-smart folding system for second and third rows and additional rear air-conditioner outlets. Besides, being short and not too heavy enables Enjoy to use both Smartech engines: the rear-wheel-drive can be powered by a turbocharged diesel 1.3L produces 77 PS of power and 188 Nm of torque to achieve 18.2 kmpl, while the petrol unit changes those numbers to 104 PS, 131 Nm and 13.7 kmpl. This car will start at 5.49 lacs.
