The third generation of ‘Family O’ engines from the GM owned Opel-Vauxhall, was designed to produce better fuel economy and emissions than the outgoing Twin-Port; used throughout the 2000s.
The new A Series engines, dubbed EcoFlex, powered all popular models from 2009; with the 1.2 almost solely utilised in the Corsa D (MkIII). With the arrival of the Adam in 2013, the A12XEL powered the new city car from launch but with the introduction of the 1.0T in early 2015, it made for a confusing engine line-up.
The 1.2i applied to the Corsa made sense, offering a bit more confidence over the 1.0i naturally aspirated that was painfully slow. However, in the Adam, for anyone over the age of 21 – where insurance is less of an issue, the aforementioned 1.0T offered buyers more power, better fuel consumption and cheaper road tax. Mmmm, maybe it’s the old school mentality that bigger is better… Despite this, the 1.2 sold in its thousands, making it one of the most common small engines around.
FAI stocks a whole raft of parts to keep one of Europe’s favourite runabouts, well…, running about.
