Three months in each petrol and mild-hybrid Corsas reveals a simple option to save £2k
As you will have learn in Matt Prior‘s function about his highway journey to a few of the UK’s lesser identified automobile museums, there is a normal consensus at Autocar that the Vauxhall Corsa is one thing of an underrated automobile.
There is a fairly excessive probability that you simply drive previous at the least one on daily basis, it being as frequent as a give-way signal or a postbox, however more often than not you’ll simply look straight by it.
This supermini was the third-most-popular automobile within the UK final 12 months, falling behind solely a pair of crossovers – the Nissan Qashqai and Ford Puma – with greater than 40,000 examples bought. It has been doing much less properly this 12 months, although – not having been seen within the UK’s high 10 sellers checklist since March, which is a little bit of a disgrace.
I reckon this fifth-generation Corsa, launched in 2019, is a fairly sharp-looking machine, particularly now that it has the Vizor entrance finish that Vauxhall likes to make a fuss about.
That was launched in final 12 months’s facelift, and 6 months after that, 48V mild-hybrid variations have been launched, becoming a member of two pure-petrol variants and an EV with 222 miles of vary.
The delicate hybrid pairs the ex-PSA Puretech 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol triple with a 28bhp electrical motor and a small lithium ion battery hidden away underneath the entrance passenger seat.
It combines to provide 99bhp or, in my automobile, 134bhp. The 0-62mph time is 8.6sec – greater than fast sufficient to merge fortunately onto fast-moving roads, which is de facto all it wants – and the quoted high velocity is a frankly foolish 133mph.
All the things is fed by a six-speed dual-clutch automated gearbox, which I predict will annoy me in the long term, as my preliminary impressions are that it’s jerky, it’s sluggish to shift and it struggles to decide on a smart gear to be in. Together with sturdy ranges of regenerative braking, this makes driving easily round city an actual problem at instances.
Kerb weight – most likely the primary determine on everybody’s thoughts every time electrification is talked about as of late – is claimed to be 1202kg, 92kg heavier than the non-hybrid Corsa.
The primary time I opened the door, I used to be stunned by the extent of kit inside. Maybe I shouldn’t have been, given the clue within the title of this top-rung mannequin: Final. Adaptive cruise management makes an look, the sound system is surprisingly good and of nice novel curiosity is the motive force’s seat, which, though fitted with handbook controls for adjustment, includes a therapeutic massage perform.
I believe should you had informed a Corsa purchaser in 2003 that this might at some point be included on the spec sheet, their head would have exploded. Thoughts you, they’d most likely have the identical response when you informed them the value. My Corsa prices an eye-watering £29,630, with the one choice being the very fetching Voltaic Blue paint (£600).
I do know that small automobiles aren’t £15,000 any extra, however £30,000 is undeniably quite a lot of cash. Certainly, it is solely a smidge lower than the Volkswagen Polo GTI.
In equity, this price ticket places it bang heading in the right direction for anybody who could be occupied with a Toyota Yaris Hybrid. A kind of in as shut a spec to my Corsa as doable, with the optionally available Security Pack and an analogous metallic blue paint, works out at £29,715. The virtually equivalent Mazda 2 Hybrid could be very equally priced, as is the Honda Jazz Hybrid.
Then once more, a top-spec Renault Clio E-Tech Full Hybrid will be had for £25,495 and the brand new MG 3 Hybridt lops one other £4000 off the invoice even in its fancy Trophy trim.
You’ll hope that the Corsa would be capable to distinguish itself as worthy of sitting on the higher-priced finish of the supermini spectrum, however my preliminary impression is that it comes throughout as a bit bland inside, with uninspiring black plastic all over the place and considerably cheap-feeling supplies.
A minimum of the usual 10in infotainment touchscreen, which in my expertise was sluggish, badly laid out and crash-prone, was as a part of the current facelift changed by a a lot nicer one, with a cleaner structure and a wider facet ratio. Apple CarPlay stretches all the way in which throughout the display screen now, too – one thing that basically helps a automobile to look extra upmarket in my eyes.
The inside is spacious for front-seat passengers, and the 309-litre boot is fairly good for such a small automobile (albeit with a giant loading lip), such that there is nearly sufficient room to lug round my images gear. Evidently has been achieved to the detriment of rear passenger house, thoughts you: three adults collectively actually feels tight.
Vauxhall claims mixed WLTP gas consumption of 60.1mpg for my automobile, but that is a determine I’ve seen in a pure-petrol Corsa earlier than, so I am to find how simply how excessive I can push the financial system readout on my countless lengthy journeys across the nation.
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A seek for a primary automobile for my sister turned up an attention-grabbing titbit. I had gone to have a look at a Citroën C1 in Bournemouth for her, with the vendor flogging it on behalf of his daughter. “She’s simply began a brand new job in Southampton, and also you simply cannot do this in one thing this small,” he mentioned. “You want one thing larger.”
As somebody who used to do 500 miles every week in a Fiat 500, this baffled me no finish. It wasn’t only a one-off, both. A brief trawl of some model-specific small automobile Fb teams revealed a good few examples of individuals pondering alongside the identical traces. I am unable to actually perceive why.
I deliver this up as a result of most of my journeys appear to contain massive motorway miles, and the Corsa comprehensively ignores the above mind-set. It virtually feels prefer it was designed to be a long-distance mini-GT within the fashion of an Aston Martin Cygnet. Okay, possibly that is taking it a bit far (metaphorically talking), however this automobile is critically spectacular for, properly, a Corsa.
The twin-clutch transmission is geared fairly properly for the job. When you get by that preliminary punch of energy on the motorway slip highway – which, with 134bhp and 169lb ft, is greater than straightforward to do – it slips into sixth and is greater than content material to sit down at low revs and pull itself together with its torquey little three-pot.
What strikes you at a cruise is the noise – or moderately the dearth of it: it is spookily quiet. Regardless of being on 17in rims with 45-profile tyres, the highway roar is impressively subdued, and it is virtually whisper-quiet inside, save for some wind noise from the mirrors.
Engine noise is just about non-existent, too, so even should you’re a kind of individuals who would not take heed to music or podcasts whereas driving, you are unlikely to be pushed to distraction.
Supportive seats rely for lots on lengthy journeys. The Corsa’s aren’t dangerous, with digital lumbar assist proving to be a lifesaver on lengthy drives.
The therapeutic massage perform is one thing of a short-lived novelty: it feels extra like somebody unrhythmically urgent a pillow into your backbone than a professional masseur gently kneading your again.
Other than smaller, extra trivial points such because the absence of a 200mph high velocity or a wealthy leather-based and wooden veneer cabin, the obvious barrier to the Corsa presenting itself as an Aston Martin DB12 rival for a fifth of the value is the lively cruise management.
It is extremely nervous and panics if it could see a automobile inside what appears like the space wherein you can simply cease a completely laden oil tanker.
Concerningly, it is too readily confused by lanes on even the gentlest motorway curves, usually choosing up autos to its left and starting to brake fairly closely to cease what it sees as an impending collision.
It is particularly dangerous coming as much as move lorries – presumably as a result of them being that little bit wider – and it brakes more durable to compensate for the velocity distinction.
All this might be way more bearable should you might swap between lively and common cruise mode, whether or not that be through a steering wheel-mounted button, as within the Toyota Corolla, or hidden in a menu, just like the Mazda MX-30.
However you’ll be able to’t, so far as I can work out. It is a disgrace as a result of in a world wherein so many individuals decide to do 65mph moderately than 70mph, it appears like a lacking piece of the mile-muncher puzzle.
Even so, it is unsuitable to imagine that small automobiles cannot do massive miles. I am averaging about 700 miles every week within the Corsa in the interim, and I have never felt the should be in something larger but.
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Life with a Corsa Hybrid thus far has been fairly nice. It is about as quick as a standard, non-performance small hatchback must be, it is economical and it is sensible sufficient for each day life, even when lumbered with a full load of digicam tools.
Individuals are complimentary about it, too. A good friend even remarked that it is “too good to be a Vauxhall”. A bit unfair to the model, I believe, however regardless of.
There may be one factor about it that drives me completely loopy, although: the experience. I can rely on one hand the variety of automobiles I have been in which have handled lumps and bumps worse than this, and most of these have been hardcore sports activities automobiles.
The first experience is ok. When you have been to drive this Corsa down a wonderfully clean highway, you’ll marvel what I am on about, as all could be properly. The issue is that in Britain, a wonderfully clean highway is all however a fantasy.
The second the automobile finds a bump on the floor, you recognize about it – not from seeing it however from feeling an ungodly crash as you go over it. It might make you really feel as should you’re driving over a small velocity bump when in reality you are merely traversing a small pothole.
Even minor bumps – bridge enlargement joints on a motorway, for instance – ship a shock by the automobile, and genuinely bumpy roads shortly change into exceptionally irritating to drive down.
This experience is surelv hindered by the large, 17in wheels shod with solely 205/45-section rubber, however there’s extra to it than that. I bought maintain of a 100bhp unelectrified handbook Corsa (within the one-step-down GS trim) with the identical wheel and tyre mixture and took the 2 automobiles on an equivalent route alongside the closely uncared for roads of Poole.
The petrol automobile rode noticeably higher, coping with the bumps pretty properly and with out many of the crashiness that plagues the hybrid.
In fact, the petrol GS is lighter than the hybrid Final, however solely by 100kg or so. Even with a passenger and a boot stuffed with my work gear, it nonetheless rode a lot better than its pricier counterpart.
It feels as if the suspension is sprung way more firmly within the hybrid – too firmly. You’ll count on it to be extra softly sprung to take care of that further weight, however there’s seemingly no want for it to be on the degree it’s.
This appears to be a recurring theme with Stellantis merchandise: colleagues have reported comparable discrepancies between electrified and non-electrified merchandise from different manufacturers within the conglomerate.
My Corsa comparability check revealed one thing else attention-grabbing, too. The nine-mile route I drew up took me from my residence within the suburbs proper into the congested centre of city, through some quick stretches of twin carriageway and numerous quicker roads too.
Visitors ranges have been about the identical on every run (there was a one-minute distinction in instances). The petrol recorded a 42.7mpg common, the hybrid 45.5mpg. An enchancment, certain, however is 2.8mpg round city price spending greater than £2000 further to attain?
It was an analogous story on longer drives: the petrol sometimes hovered across the 57mpg mark, the hybrid about 3mpg greater. Once more, barely higher, however definitely worth the expense..?
Closing replace
The Corsa title turns 43 years previous in 2025, having first graced the mainland European model of the boxy hatch that we Brits usually tend to know because the Nova in 1982.
The primary UK Corsa – the spherical, cuddly hatch that just about defines the ‘blobiect’ faculty of design that turned so prevalent all through the Nineteen Nineties – hit our potholed roads in 1993 and few different nameplates are actually fairly so ingrained in our psychological picture of the British highway scene.
That mentioned, in apply most individuals merely look straight by the Corsa. Very similar to a first-generation Nissan Qashqai or, maybe extra appropriately, a Ford Fiesta, it is simply… there, merely part of the site visitors jam making your Monday morning worse or occupying the final parking house in your avenue, worthy of no additional thought.
The aforementioned Ford was at all times the yin to the Corsa’s yang, and a 12 months and a half into the post-Fiesta world, the Vauxhall silently troopers on, unappreciated by most.
It popped up on the highest 10 bestseller’s checklist a few instances throughout final 12 months however didn’t take even a step in direction of the heights it hit in 2023 when the Corsa was the third-most-sold new automobile within the nation.
So are patrons lacking out on one thing particular by discounting the Corsa? Primarily based on my expertise, I am going to admit that the Corsa hasn’t finished an enormous quantity to enamour me over the previous few months, but it surely’s finished little to make me actively dislike it both.
Let’s begin with one essential factor I appreciated: the way in which it drove on the open highway. The 134bhp hybrid set-up in my automobile was all you can ever want in the true world, with the 1.2-litre turbo petrol three-cylinder offering greater than sufficient energy all by the rev vary.
With its 0-62mph time on the fitting aspect of 9 seconds, I by no means needed to fear about choosing up sufficient velocity to match the circulate of a fast-moving motorway, and the in-gear acceleration was higher than I had initially anticipated.
Overtaking was a decidedly easy expertise: you’d merely mash your foot to the ground to kick it down a gear or two and also you’d slide simply previous the truck/tractor/Honda Jazz doing 35mph in a nationwide velocity restrict zone for no conceivable cause. It is a disgrace, then, that this powertrain has simply been eliminated
from sale, leaving solely the marginally gutless 99bhp hybrid and non-hybrid petrol engines on sale.
The automobile proved surprisingly good enjoyable in corners. Physique roll was properly contained and lateral grip plentiful, which made it really feel secure sufficient for me to throw it about after I took the great distance residence. It did not immediate me to go for a drive only for the sake of it, however neither did I consistently want I used to be driving one thing else every time I discovered myself on an entertainingly winding highway.
The Corsa additionally proved a succesful motorway cruiser – one thing individuals appear to assume a small automobile is incapable of being. Engine noise and highway noise have been splendidly quiet in contrast with different superminis, and the seats have been beautifully comfy.
That was nice as a result of, with a 45-litre gas tank, it was more than pleased to constantly journey properly over 400 miles as soon as brimmed. Financial system was spectacular total, sometimes hovering just below 50mpg, albeit a lot lower than the official mixed 60.1mpg.
It wasn’t all sunshine and roses, although. As comfy because the seats have been, the driving place itself was about as unergonomic because it will get. A couple of colleagues reckon it has to do with the automobile’s platform being designed primarily for the i-Cockpit structure utilized by Stellantis stablemate Peugeot.
It actually felt that manner, with the cheap-looking instrument display screen at all times seeming to be barely obscured. I’m a fairly usually proportioned particular person, however it doesn’t matter what I did – adjusted the column, modified the seat distance, sat decrease – there was at all times one thing off that no quantity of fiddling might repair.
The tiny windscreen aperture had a seemingly shallow rake, which made it really feel very distant, and the rear-view mirror seemed to be about twice as giant because it must be, blocking what little you can already see ahead.
A black headlining and darkish, shiny plastics appeared to suck in the entire gentle, making the inside a dim place to be. House was restricted too: five-up drives within the Corsa have been loved by none. The boot was as massive as you can hope for, thoughts you.
My major drawback with the Corsa hybrid is straightforward: the existence of the non-hybrid. I ran one in decrease GS trim for some time to see the way it in contrast and made some attention-grabbing discoveries.
Not solely did it repair the hybrid’s appallingly crashy experience, but it surely was simply as economical total. In truth, it was a mighty 0.1mpg extra environment friendly than the hybrid. And, in dishevelled however habitable handbook guise, it’s £2k cheaper.
Are you lacking something particular by not being extra conscious of the Corsa? Probably not, but it surely’s a wonderfully succesful automobile nonetheless.
Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 Turbo Hybrid 136PS Final
Costs: Listing worth new £29,030 Listing worth now £29,255 Value as examined £29,830
Choices: Voltaic Blue Paint, £600
Gas consumption and vary: Claimed financial system 60.1mpg Gas tank 45 litres Check common 49.0mpg Check finest 50.2mpg Check worst 47.8mpg Actual-world vary 485 miles
Tech highlights: 0-62mph 8.8sec High velocity 133mph Engine 3 cyls in line, 1199cc, turbo, petrol, plus electrical motor Max energy 134bhp Max torque 170lb ft Transmission 6-spd dual-clutch automated, FWD Boot capability 309 litres Wheels 17in, alloy Tyres 205/45 R17 Kerb weight 1192kg
Service and working prices: Contract rent charge N/A (£268 for the 1.2 Turbo Hybrid 100PS Final) CO2 106g/km Service prices None Different prices None Gas prices £910.16 Working prices inc gas £910.16 Price per mile 13 pence Faults Mysterious crackling after lengthy journey, infotainment freezing
