The Vauxhall Corsa’s back to have another crack at the supermini market. Could this be the time it breaks the Fiesta’s stranglehold?
The Corsa has always been a pretty entertaining steer and Vauxhall is looking to continue that trend. Underpinning this latest fourth-generation car is a completely redesigned chassis with precisely zero carry-over components from the last model. It sports a 5mm lower centre of gravity, a stiffer front sub-frame and a sharper suspension geometry.
The electrically-assisted power steering gets a City mode for you to twirl around effortlessly when parking , but receives a UK-specific tune to cater for our roads. Internal friction has been minimised, as has understeer. Both Comfort and Sport suspension set ups have improved dampers that aid ride quality.
The star of the Corsa’s engine range is the 1.0-litre, three-cylinder turbo petrol unit. Recognising that diesel engines don’t always make the big sales numbers in the supermini sector, Vauxhall has instead devoted its attention to super-efficient petrol units. The 1.0-litre is the only production three-cylinder engine on the market with a balancer shaft, helping it combat noise, vibration and harshness. This Euro6-compliant engine is offered on either 87 or 113bhp power outputs and both manage 125lb/ft of torque at just 1,800rpm. An improved version of Vauxhall’s 1.4 turbo engine is also featured and there are two budget naturally-aspirated petrol engines – a 1.2 and a 1.4-litre. Big improvements to the 1.3 CDTi diesel have elevated it to Euro 6 emissions standards. Transmissions? Vauxhall has announced two six-speed gearboxes, a manual and an automatic, delivering greater efficiency and a slicker shift action.
The Corsa operates in a section of the market that, while headed by the Fiesta, has been turned on its head by the rise of Korean models such as the Hyundai i20 and the Kia Rio. Put bluntly, if your car isn’t generously equipped right down to the entry-level model, it’s going to face an uphill task. Vauxhall has announced a whole slew of equipment for the Corsa to make sure it is.
Prices are much as before across the three and five-door range, starting at around £9,000, with trim levels running from ‘Life’ to ‘Sting’, ‘Sting R’, ‘Design’, ‘SRi’, ‘SRi VX-Line’ and ‘SE’. Plus there are the inevitable special editions too, so you’ll not be short of choice. All models get features like a heated windscreen, remote central locking, powered front windows and mirrors, a decent quality stereo with an aux-in socket and hill start assist to stop you drifting backwards on uphill junctions. Safety stuff includes twin front, side and curtain airbags plus ESP stability control.
In its fourth generation, plusher versions of this Corsa get heat for the front seats, steering wheel and windscreen, as well as soft-tone ambient lighting, plus a full-size panoramic roof is also available. Safety systems include Side Blindspot Alert, High Beam Assist, Lane Departure Warning, bi-xenon lights and a rear-view camera.
Vauxhall can’t afford to get the Corsa’s cost of ownership figures wrong. This car has been the company’s best-selling model for many years, generally sitting at number two in the overall passenger car sales charts. In its last full year, Vauxhall sold 83,000 Corsas in the UK, outstripping total full-range sales of manufacturers like Seat, Skoda, Renault and Citroen. We’re the lead market for the Corsa by a massive margin, the second biggest being Germany with 50,000 registrations.
The UK is also a market that’s very sensitive to fuel economy and emissions variations between models. The 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine makes some pretty impressive numbers, recording 54.7mpg on the combined cycle. The 73 and 93bhp versions of the 1.3-litre CDTi diesel both come with fuel-saving Start/Stop technology fitted as standard. The former will reduce the three-door model’s CO2 emissions down to 85g/km and fuel consumption is clocked at 87.8mpg in the combined cycle.
It’s said that while the key to happiness is hard to define, the root of unhappiness is easy. It’s trying to please all of the people, all of the time. Yet that’s exactly what the modern supermini needs to do. It’s a virtually impossible task and it’s a tribute to the talent of the best of the current crop that they manage to do so much so well. The Corsa has long been a stalwart in this sector, but time and technology had overtaken the MK3 version. This fourth-generation car looks to have the talent to dive right back into the fray.
At first, it looks like a mere restyle, but it’s much more than that. Here’s a car that’s been designed from a clean sheet of paper, with an enormous development budget behind it. Available in both petrol and diesel guises, manual or auto, with three doors or five, the Corsa is off to a promising start.
Facts & figures
Model: Vauxhall Corsa – preview
Price: From around £9,000
Engine: 1.0-litre, three-cylinder turbo petrol unit
Performance: 87 or 113bhp power outputs and both manage 125lb/ft of torque
Economy: 54.7mpg combined