VAUXHALL CORSA REVIEW

List price from £9,595 Lease price from £134 The verdict 8

A long-standing UK favourite, the Vauxhall Corsa is available with a huge range of engines and specs, and is now smarter inside

These days Vauxhall offers everything from boutique hatchbacks to 4x4s, but the Corsa remains its bread and butter. Beloved of driving schools and fleets, it also attracts a large number of private buyers and accounts for almost a third of all the company's sales.

It's hardly surprising, then, that Vauxhall hasn't messed with the formula too much for this latest version. Instead, it has concentrated on updating the engines, improving the driving experience and giving the Corsa a more upmarket feel inside and out.

Space
Some rivals offer more space for the same sort of money

While most cars grow with each generation, the latest Vauxhall Corsa uses the same basic underbody as its predecessor.

The interior dimensions are unchanged, then, which means you can fit four people inside the car (or five at a push) but lanky teenagers won't want to sit behind a six-foot driver for long.

Access to the rear seats is easy if you choose the five-door model rather than the three-door. And every Corsa has useful cubbies for phones, keys and bottles of drink.

There's also room for a large suitcase or numerous bags of shopping in the boot. However, you may well have to take a wheel off your baby buggy before it will fit.

The alternative is to fold down one side of the rear seats; they're split 60/40. But there's a step to them unless you have the height-adjustable boot floor, making bulky items tricky to load.

Comfort

Mostly good, although the lowest spec version is short on seat adjustment

The ride isn't perfect, feeling a little jiggly at times, but the Corsa is good at dealing with potholes (at least on our car's 16-inch wheels) and generally strikes a good compromise between comfort and control.

Similarly, some wind and road noise enter the car at motorway speeds, but these sounds aren't overly intrusive, and the 1.0-litre turbo petrol engine is remarkable smooth and quiet for a three-cylinder unit.

The height of the driver's seat is fixed in Life specification Corsas. However, other versions of the car offer enough adjustment to let most people find a driving position that works.

Dashboard layout

Simple enough to use and looks smart

As long as you avoid the cheapest versions of the Corsa, you get Vauxhall’s IntelliLink touchscreen entertainment system.

This is worth having because it features logically laid out menus and the software responds quickly. Plus you can download apps to bring extra functions, such as satnav.

Vauxhall has also avoided the mistake made by Peugeot, and kept the air-conditioning controls separate from the touchscreen so you can quickly adjust the temperature or fan speed.

And while the Corsa doesn’t feel as classy inside as a 208, it’s smarter than many other small hatchbacks, including its arch rival the Ford Fiesta.

Easy to drive

At its best in town, where you can make the most of the light steering and good visibility

The steering is light at low speed, and it can be made even lighter at the touch of a button. This combines with good all-round visibility and the car's comparatively small size to take the strain out of manoeuvring. And if you’re still worried about parallel parking, there’s the option of a system that steers the car into spaces for you.

Sadly, the Corsa isn’t as impressive on faster roads because you have to make lots of small steering corrections to maintain a steady course.

We tried the 89bhp 1.0-litre turbo petrol model (there’s also a 113bhp version of this engine), and it's well worth considering. It feels much stronger than you’d expect given its modest power output, so you can leave the gearstick alone for long periods and still keep pace with traffic.

Past experience of the diesels and the turbocharged 1.4 petrol suggest these will also make the Corsa more than just a town car, but the non-turbo 1.2 and 1.4 petrols are likely to struggle on the motorway.

Fun to drive

Decent to drive, but the Ford Fiesta still sets the standard in this area

The Vauxhall Corsa stays pretty composed in corners, even if you avoid the sportier models, and UK cars get a bespoke steering set-up that helps them respond quickly and reassuringly when you turn the wheel.

True, a Fiesta is more agile and entertaining, and the gearshift is a little notchy, but overall the Corsa is quite enjoyable to drive.

Reliability

Vauxhall owners have some grumbles and warranty is ordinary

Like all Vauxhalls, the Corsa will be covered by three-year, 60,000-mile warranty from January 2015. This is comparable with the cover that you get with a Ford Fiesta or VW Polo, but inferior to the five-year, unlimited mileage warranties offered on the Hyundai i20 and Toyota Yaris.

Vauxhall also performed pretty poorly in the 2014 JD Power customer satisfaction survey. And while the latest Corsa was obviously too new to be included, the previous model finished down in mid-table in the most recent version of Warranty Direct's recent reliability index, which is based on warranty claims.

Fuel economy

Available with some very efficient engines

The majority of engines in the Corsa range provide excellent fuel economy.

The diesels are at least as frugal as most rival models. And the turbocharged 1.0-litre petrols also look very efficient on paper, although our experience suggests these are more sensitive to driving style.

Only the automatic version of the 1.4-litre petrol car has disappointing figures.

Affordability

Competitively priced and most versions have low running costs

It's best to ignore the headline-grabbing starting price because the versions you'll actually want cost thousands more. However, they still undercut equivalent Fiestas.

Vauxhall dealers also match their Ford counterparts in offering big discounts to offset comparatively weak resale values. And they have some very attractive PCP finance deals.

Servicing and insurance bills are affordable, while the diesel and the weaker of the two 1.0-litre turbo petrol have low CO2 emissions that make them attractive company car choices.

Safety

Should perform well in a crash, and available with lots that will help you avoid one

The latest Vauxhall Corsa hasn't been crash tested by the independent assessors at Euro NCAP, but the signs are promising because its predecessor achieved the maximum five-star rating.

Standard safety equipment includes six airbags and an electronic stability control system that helps you recover from skids. What’s more, there are additional driver aids are on the options list, including one that warns if there’s a vehicle in your blind spot, and another that will automatically apply the brakes if it senses you’re about to run into the vehicle in front in stop-start traffic.

Standard spec

Only the cheapest versions feel basic

The cheapest version of the Corsa is the Sting, which comes with alloy wheels, a Bluetooth hands-free phone connection and a socket that lets you connect your iPod to the stereo. However, you have to upgrade to the Excite spec to get air-conditioning, a digital radio and the touchscreen entertainment system.

Design spec is also worth considering because it swaps the alloy wheels for cruise control and a wider range of engines, including the impressive 89bhp 1.0-litre turbo petrol.

Then there’s the sporty looking SRi model, the even sportier looking SRi VX-Line, and the range-topping Limited Edition. We wouldn’t bother with the last of these, though, because it’s quite pricey and lesser Corsas are already well equipped.