About to hit Vauxhall showrooms across the UK is the all-new, fourth generation Corsa, following its launch at
this year's British Motor Show. The bubbly supermini has been with us nearly fifteen years, so we thought it an appropriate time for a little ‘This is your life’ honour, with a touch more impartiality.
Replacing the déclassé Nova in early 1993, the Corsa offered a cheap and cheeky supermini to a market that, at the time, was very sparse indeed; Peugeot’s 106, the Renault Clio and old adversary the Ford Fiesta were the only serious players.
The original Corsa soldiered on - with the help of a mild facelift in 1997 - until late 2000; cementing its position as
the choice for driving instructors. Cheap to buy, insure and run, the baby Vauxhall became a favourite with those new to the road; although it was far from class-leading in other areas.
Things haven’t really changed much since. A
replacement in 2000 improved things considerably, but the Corsa was still a way behind its more refined and multi-talented rivals. An onslaught of decent Japanese offerings - the Toyota Yaris and Honda Jazz to name two - pushed the ageing Corsa even further down the pecking order. It wasn’t an awful car, there just weren’t enough reasons to buy one. Something needed to be done. Thankfully, of course, it has been.
The result doesn’t look bad, either. Not as chic as the
Fiat Grande Punto, maybe, but it certainly has a dose of continental flair about its lines. The large Clio-esque headlights give a sharp and purposeful front end, while the
Astra resemblance is obvious from all angles.
Co-developed with Fiat, the car’s 'gamma' platform is also used in the aforementioned Grande Punto. Longer, wider and more practical than its predecessor; the new Corsa has greater legroom, shoulder room and headroom, front and rear.
There’s also an interesting feature or two. One of which is an integrated rear carrier (dubbed Flexi-Fix), which can carry up to two bicycles and stows neatly into the rear bumper when not in use.
Overall quality is also said to be much improved, and we confirmed that for ourselves at the British Show this summer. Wacky colours might not be the traditional approach of going upmarket, but we hope it works.
However good the new Corsa may be - and we reckon it will be - you can’t help feeling that Vauxhall might’ve been better off indulging in a bit of badge engineering at the development stages. But we’re an open-minded bunch here at
The Car Enthusiast, so will be giving the new version every chance to remove any stigmas still hanging around from the old models.
At launch, the new Corsa is offered in five trim levels: Expression, Life, Club, SXi and Design. The basic model, the Expression, is pretty sparse on the equipment front, with only a CD player, front airbags and electric door mirrors to speak of. Moving up to the SXi model the Corsa gets automatic lighting control, rain sensing wipers, air-conditioning and a 16-inch alloy in each corner.
Prices are remarkably low, starting at just £7,495 for the 1-litre 3-door Expression (which is both better equipped and less expensive than the outgoing base model), rising to £13,795 for the flagship five-door Design 1.7 CDTi. The exiting news for us enthusiasts is that there’s a hot VXR version in development. Having recently driven the mad
Astra VXR we reckon this should inject some welcome pizzazz into the Corsa brand.
Will Nightingale - 22 Sep 2006