Small minivans are not the most successful of typical versatile European concepts. Except for the Opel and Vauxhall Meriva, the segment leader for years. So creating a successor is a great challenge, an obligation to the current model\u2019s success. But during the last Geneva Motor Show General Motors Europe presented a concept that is more than a make-over of the running Meriva. While keeping up with the practicality of today\u2019s Meriva, the concept adds functionality and fresh design beyond innovative rear-door flexibility.<\/p>\n
Unlike the current Meriva, which was in part conceived in Brazil, the concept project is totally European. It still sits on a wheelbase of 264cm, 1cm longer than today\u2019s Meriva, but it measures 422cm overall length instead of 405cm, with additional width of 176cm (+ 6.5cm) but slightly lower at 160cm (- 2.5cm). In particular the wider track front and rear of 156 and 158.4cm (+11cm resp. +12cm) enhance the Meriva concept\u2019s more robust stance.<\/p>\n
The design of the Meriva concept (built by G-Studio in Turin) was the work of Andrew Dyson and his team, chief designer advanced design of GM Europe, under the guidance of Anthony Lo. And the mission was clear: build on the success of functionality and versatility of the current model but add emotion. With a new GM Europe design language already defined and implemented on the new Insignia upper-medium model, Dyson was able to follow this strategy for the Meriva concept.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe original Meriva was rational. Now we wanted a more sculptural body shape and slightly more space. But we had to be realistic and take into account new safety regulations. So limiting front overhang was a challenge, in particular the flow of the A-pillar forward, because we wanted to maintain the mono volume principles\u201d, Dyson said.<\/p>\n
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 171<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>[images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200801_Opel_Meriva_Concept-300×153.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200802_Opel_Meriva_Concept-300×153.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200803_Opel_Meriva_Concept-300×153.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200801_Opel_Meriva_Concept-300×153.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200802_Opel_Meriva_Concept-300×153.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200803_Opel_Meriva_Concept-300×153.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-concept-en"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 23:44:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}