His name is great, but his consumption too?
Stopping at your peak, Opel must have thought in 2019. In that year, the brand pulled the plug on the compact Opel Karl, which had only been available for five years. With 38,694 copies sold, it was quite a success in the Netherlands. The model therefore had quite a few advantages compared to many competitors and it is still in demand as an occasion. But is Karl also a bit frugal?
Compared to the competition, the Karl has a very mature interior, among other things. For example, you have to look for uncovered tin with a magnifying glass and the plastics used have a high-quality appearance. It also offers five real seats. It still sounds special, because that is certainly not the standard in the compact A segment.
Consumption Opel Karl 1.0 EcoFLEX
As far as engines are concerned, Opel was not difficult. Under the hood of the Karl you will always find a 1.0-liter Ecoflex petrol engine that has three cylinders. With 75 hp, it is theoretically powerful enough for the model, which weighs only 839 kg. However, he does not like to be frugal with petrol. The 26 Karl drivers who keep track of their consumption record an average of 6 liters per 100 km. Exactly 1 in 17, no value to write home about for a car in this segment. The Hyundai i10, for example, scores a significantly better 1 in 20. Okay, it’s newer, but it largely shares its engine with the previous i10.
Those who really do their best can also drive quite economically with a Karl. This economy king, for example, crushes the factory-specified consumption of 4.4 l/100 km and achieves a sharp 4.13 l/100 km. That’s 1 in 24.2! On the other hand, 1 to 14.7 is also perfectly possible, testifies to the driver of this brightly colored copy. In total, eleven of the 26 Karl drivers drive less economically than 1 in 16.
With these values ​​in mind, we better understand why Opel stopped the model in 2019, especially in the Netherlands. After all, in 2018 the Karl already had to deal with a major price-technical blow. From September of that year, the bpm was calculated on the basis of the new consumption test WLTP, which is said to be closer to reality. In the case of the Karl, the reality was not very favorable.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl