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The smart Corsa is Vauxhall’s most famous supermini, having constantly placed in the top five best marketing cars in the UK for probably over a decade and a half. And Vauxhall Corsa with good reason too: while the newest model isn’t chiefly groundbreaking in any area, as a whole package it’s very decent indeed and has plenty of quality to take on the class leaders.
The Corsa appears with a puzzlingly large engine range. Overall, there are ten with very parallel outputs, however, the difference between the three-cylinder and four-cylinder units is momentous. Power ranges from 69bhp with the most fundamental 1.2-Litre petrol engine, to 202bhp in the fire-breathing 1.6-litre turbo of the VXR.
The naturally-aspirated 1.2- and 1.4-Litre engines contribute a similar character, with the earlier available just with 69bhp but the latter with 74bhp, or 89bhp. Vauxhall mentions some of them ‘Eco FLEX’, which is the company’s green brand, introducing start/stop and such like. But in fact, these petrol’s are so deficient in torque (the 1.2-Litre has just 115Nm, linked to the 1.3-Litre diesel’s 190Nm), that you’ll be hitting the accelerator to get them moving, which will somehow dent your fuel economy.
There’s a turbo version of the 1.4-Litre along with 98bhp that’s a little improved, but it’s still quite noisy and nowhere near as inspiring as the unique 113bhp three-cylinder turbo petrol – which finally changes the character of a car. Glad to rev and sweet-sounding, it needs 10.3 seconds to get the Corsa to 62mph, which is a little slower than the rivalling Fiesta 1.0-litre Eco Boost, but it’s an extremely refined engine.
Around town or at higher speeds, there is very little noise from the engine in the cabin and even from low revs, it pulls unpredictably strongly.
Black Edition Corsa originate with a 148bhp version of the 1.4-Litre turbo, which is remarkably stronger than the 98bhp version, naturally, and disproves the need to stamp on the accelerator when going up hills or overtaking. Its 220Nm of torque aids the Corsa to 0-62mph in just 8.9 seconds.
The 285-Litre boot is available in New Vauxhall Corsa which is right between the VW Polo and Ford Fiesta in terms of capacity but a high boot lip can make loading items a little tricky. The back bench isn’t a 60:40 split as standard and doesn’t bend completely flat, so you’re left along with a loading area that isn’t too well designed.
Vauxhall ended much of its 100,000-mile, unlimited time warranty when it first launched in 2010, but in 2014 declared that it was withdrawing the scheme and reverting back to a standard three-year, 60,000-mile one. That clearly means it runs out two years before a Hyundai warranty and four years before a Kia one, though it is transferable to consequent owners, where the unlimited one wasn’t.
