Vauxhall Corsa Review

The Vauxhall Corsa is a worthy car, but one that’s long been a byword for mediocrity. You don’t get excited about buying or owning a Corsa – whereas, thanks to its sharp style and wonderful drive, you may do about its archrival, Ford’s Fiesta. Sales figures seem to bear this out: the Fiesta has long led the UK market, with the Corsa trailing a distant second, or worse.

Vauxhall’s had enough. With the latest generation Corsa, it’s completely overhauled it to inject more style, sophistication and driving satisfaction. It’s not a totally all-new car but it’s the next-best thing, and it’s all been done with one aim in mind: to match, and beat, the Fiesta. Can it?

Although the Corsa has some familiar engines, most notably the smooth but somewhat tepid entry-level 1.2-litre petrol and clattery 1.3-litre CDTi diesel, the focus of the range is on its all-new 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo motor. This is a completely new engine that’s really big news for the Corsa. Not only is it impressively fuel efficient, it’s also a strong performer with decent pace and bigger car muscle.

It’s really easy to drive thanks to the turbo torque, and releases a fun zing of power at higher revs – at which it has no objection to singing at: this engine is noteworthy for its silky-smooth running and ultra-refined nature. Vauxhall’s come up with a corker of an engine here and, if you can afford the extra over the base 1.2-litre, you really should go for it.

There’s a decent 1.4-litre turbo as well, plus the aggressive and fast 1.6-litre turbo in the Corsa VXR that produces a wild 205hp to guarantee real depth of performance. Vauxhall hasn’t forgotten another big failing of the old Corsa, though: the gearchange has been improved across the board, for both five-speed and six-speed models, with a much more direct shift action and more satisfying feel.

The Corsa has never been a car that rode or handled particularly well. Safely competent was about the sum total of its talents. Thanks to much work by Vauxhall’s engineers, it’s turned this around. The Corsa isn’t quite as brilliant as the Fiesta, but it’s pretty good, and a big improvement on what went before.

The extra sharpness in the handling is particularly welcome. It turns into corners with more confidence and less squidgy roll than before, feeling more poised and alert which makes the driver feel more comfortable when driving it quickly. Sharper steering that’s better weighted and more accurate is another boon: the feel of the Fiesta isn’t there, keen drivers will note, but for most it’s a very pleasing improvement.

The ride was rather forgettable in the old Corsa; with this one, it’s upped comfort levels not just by improving absorbency but also improving body control. The whole car feels more taut and level, so passengers roll about less and, therefore, are less likely to feel sick if a Corsa’s thrown quickly down a twisty back road. Yet road harshness is filtered out more successfully too: a real win-win.

We’ve already mentioned the superb refinement of the 1.0-litre engine, which will impress if you’ve experience of old Corsa engines. It’s more pleasant to use in town and much more ‘big-car’ quiet at speed; it’ll tackle motorway speeds with real refinement.

The rest of it is quieter than before too, though. No point making the engine less noisy if the rest of it is going to fill in the noise gap, after all. Road noise has been cut, there’s less wind noise and the general background noise you hear when on the move has been reduced. It feels like a more mature, more modern car now.

Although there will be a few detail aspects that old Corsa drivers will find familiar – take the electric window switches, for example – the bulk of it is all-new, being shared with the premium city car Vauxhall Adam. And what an improvement it all is.

Quality has been upped considerably over the plasticky old model, with both fit and finish marking a real step on. Indeed, it’s perhaps even better than the Fiesta in this respect, particularly on upper-range models which have a lot of expensive-looking bespoke trim. A decent driving position and very good, very supportive seats are carryovers from before (although rear visibility in the three-door remains a little restricted due to those thick rear pillars).

There’s a unique Vauxhall feature too – a full colour touchscreen that links with smartphones and offers a huge array of functions and apps. Online music streaming can be controlled with finger swipes, special sat nav tools are available and there’s a whole host of other features available through the Intellilink system. It’s a super setup that’s a real draw. The Fiesta has no answer for it...

The Corsa isn’t much bigger than before, but it was never a particularly cramped car so it doesn’t suffer in this regard. Those in the front are well off and the rear is decently too – although obviously better in the five-door as it feels more open plan and less restricted (we also found the strong springs on the front seats didn’t help with entry and exit…).

The boot is a decent 280 litres with the seats up, extending to 1,090 litres with them folded, and there’s a neat dual-floor system in the boot so you can trade ultimate space for easy slide-in, slide-out access. There’s more stowage space for smaller items in the cabin thanks to the new dash layout, although you can still do better in this sector. 

Vauxhall claims some extraordinary fuel economy figures for the new Corsa, particularly the ultra-efficient 1.3-litre diesels. Well over 85mpg is the on-paper promise, although it probably won’t deliver this in reality. The 1.0-litre petrol is also very good on paper – which delivers low CO2 for affordable tax – but again, perhaps don’t bank on achieving this in the real world.

More generally, long service intervals help keep costs down and the very well proven Corsa is unlikely to go wrong in a major way. If it did, it wouldn’t cost much to replace. There are even benefits to the Intellilink system – so long as you have a good data package on your smartphone, adding on new features is simply a matter of downloading an app…

Vauxhall builds cars well, with plenty of long-term solidity, but the finish of the materials it uses hasn’t always reflected this. The new Corsa marks a step on here, with better trims and nicer finishes both inside and out to make it seem a higher quality car.

Although the firm doesn’t offer its lifetime warranty anymore, don’t take this as a suggestion Vauxhalls have suddenly become unreliable. They are still dependable cars and there’s little reason to fear high miles or long-term ownership with the Corsa. 

The Corsa has a four star Euro NCAP safety score, which is a reflection of its supermini-level safety assist aids rather than any lack of impact protection. The old-shape car scored five stars under the previous regime, and we don’t think the Corsa’s suddenly become any less safe. Vehicle security should be well proven too, with good old fashioned keys rather than any high-tech keyless-go tech.