4.3.2004
Geneva World Premiere: TRIXX Ultra-compact multi-talented city car

Hailed as a brilliantly conceived, innovative city car, the Opel TRIXX is only three meters long with unique variable interior layout and overall packaging.

Hailed as a brilliantly conceived, innovative city car, the Opel TRIXX is only three meters long with a unique variable interior layout and new seats for all passengers.

This ultra-compact car is a genuine multi-talent, thanks to brilliantly conceived packaging and a typical Opel variable interior layout that has been named "Flex3".

Flex3 permits up to three adults and a child to be carried, or alternatively a large amount of luggage or other objects when only the driver is on board. There are three electrically operated 'pantograph' doors, two on the passenger's side and one on the driver's side, so that people can enter and leave the car very easily and conveniently.

Other brilliant ideas, and the TRIXX has plenty of them, are the inflatable rear seat, a front passenger's seat that can be folded away and a roof hatch that opens when a button is pressed to permit long objects to be carried upright. There is a luggage rack at the rear that can be pulled out like a drawer to carry heavy or dirty objects.

The TRIXX is a front-wheel-drive car with very modest fuel consumption, powered by the new 1.3-liter CDTI turbocharged diesel engine with common-rail direct engine also available in Opel's Agila and Corsa models; it has an output of 51 kW (70 hp).

Gaining space due to intelligent packaging
Intelligent packaging is the clue to the compact dimensions. One of the most ingenious moves was to relocate the radiator over the engine. This novel arrangement alone saves 130 millimeters in overall length. The engine runs no risk of getting too hot, either: when the car is standing still or the engine is switched off, the heat rising inside the engine compartment escapes through the two boldly styled, ribbed openings in the hood. These are closed by flaps when this 'city hopper' is on the move, and the heat is expelled with the aid of a fan through two ventilation slots behind the headlamps.

The TRIXX may be small outside, but the space inside is quite remarkable, thanks mainly to two entirely new, unusual seat designs. The front passenger's seat has an ingenious folding mechanism that rotates it around its center axis and retracts it completely into the floor. The seat back is then flush with the center tunnel, doorsill and rear foot well, yielding a completely flat load area next to the driver. There are side supports for the folded seat so that it can withstand heavy loads.

Bulky objects are easy to load through the two electrically operated 'pantograph' doors on the passenger's side, which open to the front and rear respectively. Each door has only a single support arm and can be opened without difficulty parallel to the car's body in a narrow parking space or garage, like a conventional sliding door but without the unsightly guide rails in the body. This unique solution for the TRIXX, which is of course ideal for such a versatile urban transport vehicle, is based on the door design first seen on Opel's Insignia large-car concept.

Easy access to the load area is guaranteed, because the two 'pantograph' doors open very wide; the rear door actually extends for 55 centimeters behind the rear of the TRIXX. The resulting opening is up to 1.50 meters wide, and provides unhindered access to the rear seat or when loading bulky objects.

The front passenger's seat has a generous range of front-to-rear adjustment that the rear-seat occupant will greatly appreciate. The front seat can be moved forward by up to 30 centimeters for more legroom at the back. Even more lounge-like space at the rear can be obtained behind the front passenger seat by folding it completely. Both front seats have a lightweight glass-fiber and aluminum frame and combined fabric and leather upholstery.

Seating for all: Third seat rear inflates in seconds
The third seat at the rear of the TRIXX is brought into use in a manner that is just as unusual as the design of the front passenger seat, for which a patent has been applied. The seat lies flat on the load room floor when not needed. Within no more than ten seconds, the seat (which is made of synthetic material) can be inflated with the aid of an on-board air compressor. Deflation is with the help of a vacuum pump. The seat contains special supporting foam that gives it the necessary concave form and enhances comfort. The head restraint is used to control the inflation or deflation of the rear seat; when it is pushed into the rear panel in the out-of-use position, the air is able to escape from the seat, but when raised to the driving position the seat is inflated.

Roof hatch: an opening for extra-long items to be carried, pick-up style
The vast interior space that the TRIXX provides in the front and rear passenger areas when the seats are not occupied is not its only useful load-carrying feature. If the rear window is lowered electrically into the rear panel and the rear section of the glass-panel roof is slid forward, a large pick-up style opening is formed, through which extra-long objects measuring up to 960 millimeters in width, 430 mm in depth and no less than 1400 mm long can be loaded.

The glass-panel sliding roof, the rear window and the three pantograph-action doors can all be opened and closed via remote control. There are also two separate switches on the driver's door to operate the sliding roof and the rear window.

Top performance: New 1.3-liter CDTI ECOTEC diesel keeps things moving
The TRIXX weighs only about 850 kilograms, so that its performance on the road lives up to its dynamic appearance. It reaches 100 km/h from a standstill in 13.2 seconds and has a top speed on the open road of 170 km/h. Its fuel consumption, on the other hand, is extremely modest: according to the MVEG test cycle, only 3.9 liters per 100 kilometers flow through the modern direct injection system of its 1.3-liter CDTI diesel engine. Fuel is supplied by a common-rail system operating at a pressure of 1600 bar.

Figures such as these and advanced technological features make the innovative ECOTEC engine, with its four valves per cylinder, an ideal power unit for Opel's pioneering minicar. The ECOTEC engine has a displacement of 1251 cc, making it the world's smallest passenger-car diesel, but its performance matches that of many much larger engines in just the same way as the space available in the TRIXX is often only equaled by cars with larger overall dimensions.

For Opel's Chairman and Managing Director, Carl-Peter Forster, this design study "shows the immense potential for new ideas that exists in a class of car that Opel redefined back in 1995 when it exhibited the MAXX at the Geneva Motor Show. The target values that applied then in terms of economical use of space and versatility have been extended by the TRIXX, which is a perfect interpretation of our motto 'Fresh Thinking - Better Cars'."