Our view:
We'll keep this one short(ish), because the Vauxhall Corsa 'E' is on its last legs now, due to be replaced by the
PSA-developed Corsa 'F' any day soon. But if you're half-wondering whether you should pop into your nearest Vauxhall dealership and snap up one of the last of the Corsa GSi models as a bit of a gamble, we've got a quick answer for you: no. Don't do it. Not unless the dealer is Malfunctioning Eddie, who totally loses his marbles and offers you a 50 per cent discount there and then.
The problem here is that the GSi trades on an old Vauxhall performance badge, one which used to mean 'we don't make nuffin' quicker' back in the day. But, since the moniker's revival on the larger
Insignia, it is clear it has become a lesser, possibly interim replacement for Vauxhall's hottest VXR models. And while the Insignia GSi is a hit, mainly because the laid-back-performance character suits the grander Griffin better, on the Corsa you're merely left ruing the departure of the 205hp, 1.6-litre
VXR real thing.
The GSi promises plenty, even though Vauxhall is at pains to point out that it's
absolutely not a replacement for the VXR. It has a more lukewarm 1.4-litre, 150hp/220Nm motor, it doesn't have the Corsa VXR Performance Pack's Drexler mechanical limited-slip diff... but it does have the Koni Frequency Selective Dampers (FSDs), it does have much of the VXR's bold exterior styling, it does have the same sports-style front seats (full Nappa leather Recaros are a £1,055 upgrade and our test car had them - wonderful!) and, as an option, you can bolt on 18-inch five Y-spoke diamond-cut alloys (£510) to make it look properly sporty. Indeed, in the signature and eye-catching Mandarina paintwork, the Corsa GSi looks ready to take on the likes of the
Ford Fiesta ST and the
Peugeot 208 GTi by Peugeot Sport.
Except, plainly, with only 150hp, an 8.9-second 0-62mph time and a top speed of 129mph, it cannot take on the ST and GTi by PS; it's nowhere near in the same league. Oh, it handles almost every bit as well as the departed VXR PP, but it doesn't have the traction out of corners that its diff-equipped forebear does and it's more prone to understeer than the hottest Corsa ever was. Similarly, where the Koni FSDs seemed to work wonders on the VXR, here on the GSi the ride quality feels ever so slightly too firm. So the Vauxhall doesn't quite swing the other way and manage to provide a sportier-looking yet just-as-daily-usable alternative to something urbane like a
Volkswagen Polo GTI. It remains a touch too frenetic for that.
Vauxhall also cites the GSi as being easier to insure than the VXR and cheaper on the wallet, too, and while we're not about to argue with the former point, on the latter we're not so sure. We only drove it on fiddly country roads and the best we could get out of it was 37mpg on a steady 56mph A-road cruise, while an overall figure of 29mpg isn't exactly much to write home about. Furthermore, we only drove it for 77 miles in total during our time with it. The point here being, we could have driven more, but the GSi didn't exactly entice us in to do so.
All of the above, mind, could possibly be forgivable, except for the final huge elephant in the room: the GSi's monumental price. If Vauxhall had've flung this up for £16,500 or £16,995, as a final way to shift a few Corsa Es, we'd have been far more understanding of it. But Vauxhall didn't; instead, it fell into the self-same pricing trap as the
Suzuki Swift Sport, only the Corsa GSi tumbled in with far more cataclysmic force. The GSi's starting price... was £19,440. That's £445 more than the cheapest Fiesta ST. Quite incredibly, it's £1,445 more than Vauxhall started the Corsa VXR at, just four years ago when it launched. And it gets worse: our test car had not only the Recaro seats and the 18-inch Y-spoke wheels, but also Navi 4.0 Intellilink infotainment (£650), front and rear parking sensors (£465), electronic climate control (£415) and a Sight and Light Pack (£240). The resulting price was a frankly astounding £22,775. Come on!! TWENTY-THREE GRAND for a warm hatchback?! Plainly, that's outrageous pricing. It doesn't bear thinking about what spec of Fiesta ST you'd get for such a huge heap of cash... and, compounding the GSi's horrendously rich
faux-pas, the very next test car we had lined up was a fully-laden, Silver Fox ST-3. OK, it was £25,520, but it felt easily £2,745 the Corsa's superior; in fact, it could have been twice the price of the Vauxhall and it still would have been the preferable machine.
So the GSi is simply not good enough for its exorbitant price tag. If Vauxhall has to persist with this performance branding for the Corsa F, here's hoping the company gets it to around 180hp and manages to charge less than 20 grand for it. As it is, all we're left with after driving the Corsa GSi for a week is a painful yearning for the return of the VXR days.
