BARCELONA: 2008 Chevrolet Matiz (facelift)

Link to Original Post @ Carscoop

Oops! We don’t know what’s wrong with us -God forbid we haven’t lost our touch, but we “sort” of totally missed out on the updated Chevrolet Matiz that premiered at the Barcelona Motor Show (June 9-17). There’s no official release on Chevrolet Europe’s behalf but we did manage to discover several high-res images of the new Matiz. So, let’s begin with what’s new on the 2008 model-year mini: redesigned front and rear bumper –um, that’s about it! The re…bumpered Matiz will go on sale in Europe over the next few weeks, available with a 3-cylinder 0.8-liter motor delivering a whopping 52Hp and a “luxury version” equipped with a 4-cylinder 1.0-liter engine pumping out 66-alive-and-kicking Korean horses.

Refreshed Matiz includes new exterior and interior styling features in MY 2008

The Chevrolet Matiz has been among the most attractive and best-selling city cars on the European car market since its introduction in 2005. The exterior changes for MY 2008 will give the Matiz a fresh, sporty and more modern look. All modifications will be available for the SX and SE models.

The exterior changes are most noticeable at the front end. The new two-tone bumper (black and body color) integrates the air intake in a sporty, more aggressive fashion, compared to the current design. The upper part of the bumper, which is noticeably larger, includes the Chevrolet logo. The lower part features a honeycomb design and extends into the black area where the number plate is mounted.

The theme is continued by black rails that run across the doors and the entire side of the vehicle. The sharp edges of the rear bumper take up the design and the lower black portion of the bumper complements the sporty character of the new Matiz.

The three-tone interior will be available for all Matiz models. The small Chevrolet can now also be ordered with orange, green and blue interior trims. While the current trim is only available in grey with colored patterns, the new interior offers colorful fabrics with grey patterns, giving the car a fresh and young look.

My lawnmower has a bigger engine!

ugleeee...

Ok...I see the one for my left foot....how about the match for my right?

It looks fine for a European city car. I would drive one of these over one of those SMART cars (if I lived in Europe). This actually looks like a car, unlike the SMART.

It looks horrible for any type of car. The Smart looks 100 times better.

It's times like these that make me appreciate just how lucky I am to live in North America.

Edited June 22, 200718 yr by Captainbooyah

I am all for small cars, but Citroen, Peugeot and Renault all have nicer looking small cars. This is one small car I hope stays on that side of the ocean. GM can do so much better. Let's leave the low ground to Honda and Toyota, please.

It's fine - I am I would never want to be seen in one, but it satisfies the niche it was made for. It will sell, won't beat Peugeot/Citroen/Renault and all the other french cars but together with Opel, GM will have a decent part of the city car market with this thing

I am so not a fan of this kind of car.

Dustbusters reincarnated!

Maybe I'm dumb, but I don't understand the need to publish specs for the power window motor.

I agree but the refresh looks decent better than the old at least.

Relax... this car isn't heading here.

I wonder why they didn't just redesign it along the lines of the supermini concepts.

That makes the Aveo look like a luxury car...

Meh...its okay, but its kinda like the 2008 Ford Taurus X to the 2009 Flex-the Beat will make this obsolete! :AH-HA_wink:

Too bad we've seen true Blue Devil mules... This thread would be the perfect place for the ever funny 'this is a Blue Devil mule' joke

Edited June 25, 200718 yr by ZL-1

I think it was a really bad idea to sell Daewoo’s in Europe re-badged as Chevrolets.

If Europeans didn’t think much of Chevrolet before, selling cheap Korean cars under the name is really going to lower it to depths unrecoverable.

Even though the Corvette is sold as an independent brand over there, it is still possible that some might learn the Corvette – Chevrolet connection, and this would be very bad thing if their opinion of Chevrolet were the same as ours for Daewoo (ie Cheap runabouts.)

Yeah, but are they as bad as you think? Korean cars are stealing Euro customers, with gas so high there. GM cant sell lots of Impalas or Tahoes there.