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Automotive

GM's Mokka compact SUV to hit showrooms this year

By Mike Hanlon
February 09, 2012
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The Mokka will feature Advanced Adaptive Forward Lighting and High Beam Assist, Lane Departure Warning, Forward Collision Alert and second generation Traffic Sign Recognition
The Mokka will feature Advanced Adaptive Forward Lighting and High Beam Assist, Lane Departure Warning, Forward Collision Alert and second generation Traffic Sign Recognition
The Mokka urban compact SUV
The Mokka offers five seats
View gallery - 4 images

General Motors is joining the sub-compact SUV B-segment with an all new car - the Mokka. While it's to be shown as the Opel/Vauxhall Mokka Concept at the Geneva Motor Show in March, GM has announced that it will be available before the end of this year.

The Mokka will be available in either front- or four-wheel drive, with a pick of three engines - a 115 bhp 1.6-litre, a turbo 140 bhp 1.4-litre or a turbo 1.7-litre CDTI diesel with 130 bhp and oodles of torque, the latter two with either six-speed manual or six-speed auto transmissions.

The new small SUV will be sold under Opel in Europe and Vauxhall in the U.K., enabling General Motors to participate in new market territory. It's a very relevant territory for the company that wrestled back the global number one crown during Toyota's problems with the earthquake in Japan, because it means the company will be building a new and important sales category.

The compact SUV is an urban vehicle - despite all the pictures of couples having fun in the great outdoors in their SUVs you see in advertising, more than 95 percent of SUVs never see the environment they are built to traverse - they are a fashion statement. With compact and frugal now in vogue, and a compact that comfortably seats five, the small trendy SUV is a class for the future.

The Mokka will feature class-first lighting technologies in the form of its Advanced Adaptive Forward Lighting (AFL+) and High Beam Assist (HBA), plus a new generation of the Opel/Vauxhall front camera system, which by virtue of image processing adds Lane Departure Warning (LDW), Forward Collision Alert (FCA) and second generation Traffic Sign Recognition.

View gallery - 4 images

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AutomotiveConcept CarsGeneral MotorsOpelVauxhallGeneva Motor Show 2012
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Mike Hanlon
As a photojournalist, Mike’s work has been published in a dozen languages across 20+ countries. He has edited or managed over 75 different print publications, each with a different target audience: sports, automotive, advertising, marketing, design, ad infinitum. Mike has been working in the internet for more than 25 years and was the veteran of five internet start-ups before founding New Atlas in 2002.
9 comments
RichC
Nice, but why did the GM designers lift the Chrysler signature grille? Even the front end and hood has the subtle creases and cues of the new Dodge Avenger. Otherwise a nice copy of the Honda CRV. But then Honda which is lacking a design direction on the most part, is busy copying the distinctive front treatment and subtlety of the well-designed Chevy HHR.
Richard
Clay Jones
Who wants to bet that it won\'t be available in the states? Or if it is, the diesel won\'t be an option. Frustrating, as this looks like a winner. Finally for GM.
Gargamoth
Thats a chunky car and by no means whatsoever a SUV
chidrbmt
Sure it will be available in the U.S. as one must make a vehicle for the world market these days. But your right Clay,the diesel,which is 50% of the sales in Europe,will most likely not be sold in the U.S. They don\'t sell well here and the fuel is .80 a gallon.
william h
looks like my 2004 Pontiac Vibe
Yarmag
Why not market it as something even more unique such as Vauxhaul in the U.S.? Right hand drive could be fun on our roads.
jvsirman
Here you go again GM. You went bankrupt because you had bad ideas about what will sell and had to be bailed out by taxpayers. What are you doing now. Same old bad ideas. Big gas sucking SUV\'s on heavy truck frames. Over priced pseudo electric cars, that are a generation behind in technology and way over priced. Now the latest. You build, what maybe a fairly good vehicle, FOR FOREIGN SALE, and you say we may sell it here, but we wont make the diesel available. \"Hello, McFly, is anybody home\" the diesel is the key idea. Its real economy at a price that will sell. This idea that diesel\'s wont sell sounds like something that Old man Smith would have come up with back in the early 80\'s. Its pathetic to think you can only outsell Toyota or Honda because they have had a natural disaster.
SeekMocha
You said \"95 percent of SUVs never see the environment they are built to traverse.\"
Not true. Better to say 95% of SUVs are designed to traverse very ordinary paved roads and nothing else. They often provide an illusion of high ground clearance with blacked out lower body panels, but look underneath: gas tanks and other vulnerable components are often too close to the ground for any serious off-roading. And AWD is a joke in loose soil.
These SUVs are just station wagons, the \"utility vehicles\" of the 50s. The \"sports\" moniker is just a styling and marketing lie.
Future Hope
And no electric? No solar? 2012 and no time left to avoid Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference. Good thing the powerful oil industry guides the hand of the government who guides the hand of the car industry. All new cars should put the burning of any fossil fuel behind us as the top priority. A pretty car for a burnt planet. Where is the intelligence of humankind?
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