Fiat 500, MINI, Audi A1, Citroen DS3. Now you can to that trendy, uber-cool city car list the much-awaited Vauxhall Adam.

That’s right. Vauxhall and cool now go together as well as hot and hatch, thanks to the soon-to-be launched Adam which follows a raft of impressive new Vauxhalls of late including Insignia, Mokka and an impressively revitalised Astra.

The Adam is Vauxhall’s answer to small, trendy hatchbacks and is aimed head on at younger trendsetters. Its cute styling is new, but beneath the surface things become rather more familiar. There you'll find a shortened Corsa platform and three of Vauxhall's current-generation petrol engines, a 69bhp 1.2 and a 1.4 with either 86bhp or 99bhp.

One of the Adam’s most notable points is that it’s claimed to be the most customisable car ever, with a vast amount of options and accessories from paint colours to interior trims and wheel designs.

It aims to be as stylish as, say, a MINI and it largely succeeds. In fact, the cabin is smarter and very intuitive. The steering feels precise, and can be made lighter at the touch of a button to help with manoeuvring.

The driving position is excellent and the seats are comfortable. There are good controls for the air-conditioning and a user-friendly touch-screen interface called 'Intellilink', which you can link with your smartphone.

An optional stop-start system (£295) cuts CO2 emissions from 129g/km to 119g/km, which can save you money in the long run.

The driving position is good, the seats are comfortable and the dashboard layout is reasonably good. There are intuitive controls for the air-conditioning and a user-friendly touch-screen interface called 'Intellilink', which you can link with your smartphone.

Rear seats can be a little cramped, but no more so than the ever so successful MINI.

Prices start at £11,255 which is competitive. That’s where the fun starts. Firstly, you have to choose from one of three trims: Jam, Glam or Slam. Jam models are the entry-level and come with all the essentials, but there's a leap of £1,395 for Glam models, while range-topping Slam trim adds a further £500.

Next, you pick from 12 paint colours, with names including 'Saturday White Fever', 'Papa don't Peach' and 'James Blonde'. See? Trendy or what!

To this you add a roof colour from a choice of 'Men in Brown', 'I'll be Black' or 'White my fire', followed by exterior decal packs called Splat, Fly and Stripes.

If they don’t appeal, you can add accessory packs with names such as Twisted and Extreme, which combine various elements from the options list. Then all you have to do is select one of 20 wheel designs and you're done – for the outside at least. Inside, there are a further dozen colours and numerous dashboard surrounds that – should you get bored or want to tone down the car before selling it – can be changed for £75 plus a quick visit to your dealer.

Finally, there’s the roof lining; you can have a sunroof or 60 LED lights in celestial constellations, clouds, leaves or a black and white chessboard. Buying a car used to be so simple!

At £11,225, this sounds expensive and it is a new premium market for Vauxhall, but the work which has gone into Adam suggests it will succeed. With MINI almost too popular, maybe there is room for something else young and trendy on the roads.