2017 3 door Vauxhall Corsa
If you spot a Vauxhall Corsa on the road then there’s a good chance that it’ll have a Learner plate stuck on it somewhere. This is simply because it’s a very easy car to learn to drive in. All round this car is a very good egg, not only does it look rather smart but it’s also very cheap. The 3-door Corsa starts at just under £10k which is good value in anyone’s book.
The only problem with paying such a low price is that you’re going to get the entry level Corsa and you don’t really want this. This is because it doesn’t come with features such as air conditioning. What you want to do therefore is spend an additional £1500 and upgrade to the Design model. This is because not only do you get air conditioning but you also get a 7-inch infotainment screen. The infotainment system is called Intellilink and the reason Vauxhall have called it this is because it comes as standard with Android Auto and Apple Car Play so you can mirror your phone by just plugging it in. The beauty of Intellilink is that you can access tools such as Google Maps and full sat-nav without having to pay extra - nice!
On the whole the overall design of the Corsa is pretty nice making it a smart looking car. You’ll find soft touching materials used throughout the cabin along with shiny bits of trim. There are harder plastics used in some places but the Corsa is a supermini so you can’t expect to compare it against a luxury car. Storage is good, there are various places to put your things and you get huge door bins as well.
When you slide the front chairs forward and sit in the back seats you’ll actually be surprised by how much space there is for such a small car. The knee room is ok and even in the 3-door with its sloping roof line the head room is also decent. The only problem we found was that the runners for the front seats do eat into your foot space slightly so your passengers will find that their feet are quite close together. There’s also a hump in the middle of the floor so if you did need to carry three passengers in the back then the person in the middle won’t have the most comfortable of journeys. However, these cars really aren’t made for carrying three people in the back so all in all it’s pretty darn good.
The Corsa’s boot is kind of average for its class. It’s not the biggest but it certainly isn’t the smallest boot either. One feature we do like is the fact that it has fixed ridges along the side which means you can fit a false floor. This not only means that the load lip is hugely reduced but when you fold down the rear seats you get a pretty flat load bay. The only downside is that the rear seats have a single bench format rather than the traditional split folding system so it’s all or nothing.
When you hit the road you’ll find that the Vauxhall Corsa is a pretty decent car to drive. It goes around corners pretty well and really grips to the road when you fling it about. Although the car doesn’t roll about too much we can’t say that it’s as much fun as the Ford Fiesta. A lot of the reason for this is that the steering just feels that little bit disconnected from the road at times. Over all, the Corsa handles well enough for a car in its class and it’s nice and comfortable. Even when you’re cruising at speed it’s nice and quiet which is a bug-bear in a lot of cars of this size and price range. Visibility on the whole is very good though there is a bit of a blind-spot created by a fat A-pillar. Vauxhall have tried to get around this issue by fitting a small window but unfortunately it doesn’t help much and you may find yourself constantly trying to look around it at junctions.
You can get the Corsa with a wide choice of engines but really there’s just one worth going for. This is the 1.0 litre, 3 cylinder turbo petrol engine which really is an absolute gem. When you put your foot down it revs really smoothly unlike many other 3 cylinder turbo petrols which can sound like they’re blowing the exhaust! Also, it’s fairy nippy by way of giving you 115 break horse power (bhp) which is good for 0 to 60 in around 10 seconds. Vauxall claim that this engine should be able to do around 58 miles per gallon (mpg) which is not bad at all.
On the whole the Vauxhall Corsa is a pretty decent car but there are some annoying things about it. Here are a few:
1. The tethering points in the boot are so stiff that you’ll risk breaking a nail.
2. The rear seats tend to snag on the seatbelts when you try to fold it down.
3. You don’t get a little rest for the clutch foot like you do in the Corsa’s rivals.
4. As General Motors couldn’t be bothered to move the fuse box across to the other side the glovebox is compromised and therefore only suitable for small items.
5. There are so many different trim levels for the Corsa that you can find yourself getting really confused when you’re trying to figure out the exact right model for you.
Thankfully the Vauxhall Corsa has plenty of good features too. Here’s a couple of them:
1. There’s a special City mode for the steering which makes it nice and light for those tricky manoeuvres.
2. All models get heated windscreens and you can even upgrade it with a heated steering wheel.
3. There are plenty of useful cubby spaces for rear passengers.
4. You can adjust the back seats to increase the size of boot space or make the seating position more comfortable.
5. You can get the Corsa with Vauxhall’s excellent OnStar service which includes internet connectivity, a concierge service and the ability to lock the car using your mobile phone.
So, should you take a punt on the Vauxhall Corsa or should you avoid it? Well, the Corsa is good looking, practical and an all-round good car whilst providing you with great value. So, you could do a lot worse! You can get great deals on used Vauxhall Corsa cars with DesperateSeller.co.uk. However, if you want to drive a brand new Corsa then feel free to check out our new car deals.
