What's all this about?
Vauxhall is letting us know the pricing of the all-new fifth-generation Corsa E, shown at Paris - and yes, we know the Corsa A was known as 'Nova' over here, but there you go.
Is that it?
Is that it?
No, Vauxhall says the new Corsa has a simplified range and there's also the addition of the company's outstanding new turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine to the small hatchback's engine bay.
Has Vauxhall made the Corsa's line-up less confusing?
Not really. There are now nine trim levels, down from ten previously. Which isn't much of a streamlining process, in all honesty, although Vauxhall does say that there are half the number of model permutations now than there was for Corsa D. And the naming system has no real pattern either, chucking in some old Vauxhall badges, like 'SRi' and 'VX', with marketing buzzwords designed to make impressionable people feel good about themselves. For the record, the line-up in ascending order goes: Life, Sting, Sting R (these two feature white or black twin stripes running longitudinally over the centre of the car), Design, SRi, Excite, SE, SRi VX Line and Limited Edition. Admittedly, Excite and Limited Edition are both special specifications that won't be around forever.
Crikey - which ones should we be looking at?
Well, the headline-grabbing £8,995 entry price gets you into a Sting three-door, bizarrely enough, as the lower-grade Life model begins at £10,900; we told you this was complex. And Vauxhall is claiming some models are nearly £3,000 cheaper than they were before - namely, the three-door Corsa SRi VX Line 1.2i is now £12,630 when the old 1.4i SRi with air conditioning was £15,600; that's with more spec and improved quality on the newer Corsa, although the old car had 100hp compared the 1.2's 70hp.
Please stop, you're making my head hurt. Any other key things to look out for?
The superb 115hp 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo engine should be any Corsa buyer's aim and the cheapest way to get it is in three-door Sting R trim for £10,995. It powers the car from 0-62mph in 10.4 seconds, thanks in part to 170Nm of torque delivered from just 1,800rpm. The 1.0T is also to be found in the most expensive, no-options-fitted Corsa E at launch, the five-door, highly-specified Limited Edition, which starts from £16,235.
What else should I know before heading to my local Vauxhall dealer?
The company is claiming that because of the more focused choice of models, the improved quality of the car and good levels of equipment even in base versions, the Corsa E's residual values should be more than £1,000 better over three years/60,000 miles than the old version's figures.
Matt Robinson - 4 Oct 2014