ADAM is the new boy. He’s joined the “class” where the Mini took a seat several years ago and where the Fiat 500 is proving to be a little star.

The Mini and Fiat 500 have been slugging it out in the popularity stakes for some time now, joined latterly by the Citroen DS3, and the Vauxhall-manufactured Adam wants a piece of the action.

Like its rivals, Adam looks cool and trendy, a stylish urban-chic newcomer intent on taking the fashion-led A-sector by storm.

With more than a million different specification and trim combinations, Adam is a car of many parts, offering even greater levels of personalisation than the Mini.

You can sit back in the dealership and create a bespoke three-door hatchback reflecting your individual style and personality.

There are about 60,000 different combinations for the exterior and about 80,000 for the inside, so allow some time for selecting things like the dashboard finish and colour scheme, the head lining style, coloured clips on the wheel spokes, steering wheel trim colour, door trim colour, front grille crossmember colour, wheel style, wheel colour, roof colour, body sticker style and colour, gear lever and handbrake lever finish and then colour, body paint colour, seat fabric type, engine choice, trim level and so on.

Ultimately there will be 40 styles of wheel alone, before you move into wheel colours and clips.

Expect the 12 funkily-named exterior colours like Papa Don’t Peach, James Blonde, Buzz Lightgreen and I’ll Be Black to be expanded as well. Before too long there might just be an Adam for every person on the planet.

But if you prefer you can just choose an Extreme Pack, which basically gives you a ready-made design built from a combination of the available choices into a cohesive look. The choice is yours.

My James Blonde-coloured test car was a bright yellow affair with black roof and VXR styling pack to give it a more sporty stance. In these colours it certainly bore the hallmarks of the DS3.

There are three trim levels but none will have any identifying badges so no-one will necessarily know whether any individual Adam is the cheapest but still wellequipped Jam, mid-range Glam or – like the test car – the sportier Slam.

The engine under the bonnet will stay a secret too; from a choice of 1.2 and 1.4 petrols. There’s no diesel and there never will be, according to Vauxhall. There’s just no demand for it in a car this small.

And small it is, based on a shortened and heavily-modified Corsa chassis.

The larger engine is undoubtedly more responsive than the 1.2, yet I was still left wanting. Maybe I was expecting too much, but the pedestrian 0 to 62mph acceleration figure of 12.5 seconds tells its own story.

The steering was too playful, and gearbox was a little notchy and on the motorway it was out of its comfort zone. I started to wish I was in the bigger Corsa.

There’s not much body and it’s a doddle to drive but the fun element that has so endeared the Fiat 500 and Mini is sadly missing here.

There’s an argument that the way it drives does not really matter, but I don’t buy that.

Strongly in its favour is the cabin, which is rather delicious in a very modern way. All the gear you could hope for is available, including a clever touch-screen ‘Intellilink’ interface that simply transfers your smartphone’s main functions to the display, a chunky leather-covered steering wheel, excellent seats and solid doors. Other features include a new-generation Park Assist that automatically parks the car, a Side Blind Spot Alert and a power steering system including a ‘light touch’ City mode.

There’s not a massive amount of room in the boot. Although it’s relatively deep and you can squeeze a surprising amount of soft baggage in, the pinching point where the rear seat backs and the load lip come closest is a bit of a barrier to getting bigger stuff or hard cases in.

On the ceiling of my test car was what I can only describe as an oversized chessboard, and it was after a week of looking up at this £100 option that I decided that the Adam was just too trendy and urban-chic for me.

However, my 20-year-old daughter fell for Adam at first glance, popping a picture on her i-Phone. And that’s probably the truth of it – Adam is for 20- somethings to show off, enjoy and play with. But with the present setup, It’s not for the keen driver.

Adam might be late to the party but has learned from the rivals and in some ways moves the game on.

In other ways it is lacking and will certainly need more fizz to tempt Mini drivers.

Fact file

Vauxhall Adam Slam

PRICE: £13,770
ENGINE: 1.4 litre producing 87PS
TRANSMISSION: five-speed manual driving front wheels
PERFORMANCE: top speed 109mph, 0-62 in 12.5 secs
ECONOMY: 55.4mpg
CO2 RATING: 119g/km