Chevrolet news - Best of three - 2007

It's always the way, isn't it? You wait years for the Americans to produce a funky-looking city car, and then three come along at one.

Well, sort of. This trio of concept cars are the Beat, the Groove and the Trax (no, seriously), all unveiled by Chevrolet at the New York Auto Show today.

Designed at GM's South Korea studio, the three concepts are said to hint at the next-generation small Chevrolet - the next Matiz, in other words.

They're all small-engined, compact concepts - the Trax gets a 1.0-litre petrol, the Groove a 1.0-litre diesel and the Beat a 1.2-litre turbo petrol - and with the exception of a few leftfield touches (pop-up dashboard jukebox, anyone?) they're a pretty sensible indication of the sort of small car GM might introduce in the States.

It might not sound very American, but witness the success of Scion (Toyota's budget brand) at appealing to young Californians to see why GM wants a bit of that Generation Y pie.

And in a curiously un-American display of democracy, Chevy wants prospective buyers to vote on which concept they'd like to see put into production.

Our vote goes to the black HHR-styled Groove. Given that its platform will provide the underpinnings for the next-generation Corsa, would it be too much to ask for Vauxhall to adopt a few of those future-retro styling cues?