Badged as a Buick Encore at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit Auto Show, which ends this weekend, General Motor's new mini sport utility vehicle, or compact crossover design, will appear at March's Geneva Motor Show as the Opel and Vauxhall Mokka, and bearing in mind the success of its larger Captiva model, there's no reason why the car won't receive a Holden badge by next year.
Buick says its car is designed to be an upscale alternative to a RAV4 or CR-V in the United States, but we'd say it was a little too compact for those competitors, whose dimensions are more in line with the Captiva.
The Encore and Mokka are due in showrooms late this year.
GM says the Buick's upscale aspirations are exemplified by soft plastic surfaces, wood grain and brushed aluminum. However, we would expect a lower-echelon Chevrolet version with a more basic interior, minus the timber and with a bit more plastic showing. Buick says the Encore is designed to be family oriented and practical, with a usefully sized load hatch and fold-flat rear and front passenger seats.
Engineers tuned the Encore to be quiet, with engine and suspension isolation techniques used in the larger Buick LaCrosse sedan.
The Encore has a thick, laminated glass-and-plastic windshield to cut down on wind noise, and uses electronic noise cancellation technology.
On the safety front, the Encore has 10 airbags and GM says it expects top safety ratings from the US government and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which suggests that five-star NCAP crash ratings should be on the manifest too.
Despite the spelling, the European GM arm says the new model's Mokka name was inspired by the small, round coffee beans of the Coffea arabica variety. Whatever, we would surmise that the name would not be Holden's cup of tea, so to speak.
The only styling differences between the US and European designs are their grilles, badges and headlamp treatment.
Both front and all-wheel-drive versions of the model are expected, with six-speed manual or automatic transmissions.
In addition to the 103-kilowatt, 1.4-litre Ecotec turbo engine used by the Encore, the Mokka will offer a 1.6-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine with about 86kW on tap and a 1.7-litre CDTi turbo diesel offering 97kW and a lusty 300 newton metres of peak torque.
The Encore/Mokka will use fuel-saving start-stop systems on manual versions, while other features will include electronic stability control, traction control, hill-start assist and hill-descent control systems.
The Juke-sized crossover measures 4280 millimetres and provides up to 1372 litres of load space and up to 19 storage points.
In addition, the Mokka will have a Flex-Fix bicycle carrier that can accommodate up to three cycles at a time.