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Mini Rant: Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 (2009)


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Posted

I have a rental car in the U.K. right now, and it's a Vauxhall Corsa 1.2. When I pulled out of the lot this morning, it had 6 miles on the odometer.This is one of the most hateful cars I've ever come across. I think it's ugly. It's a Vauxhall Corsa, and even as an American I know those are both vulgar words. To make matters worse, the steering wheel is on the wrong side. (har har)But none of this compares to driving the Corsa, which is as close to Korean as one can get without just driving a Hyundai. It goes without saying that the steering is numb and the gearbox is sloppy. And I didn't expect the 1.2 litre engine's 68 bhp to be especially nippy. Everything else though is terrible.I've checked on the price, and according to Parkers.co.uk, the RRP for my 1.2 "Design" spec model is £13,680. I assume that heavy discounting takes place. But at whatever price, surely one could get a nice new Ford Fiesta, or a Skoda Fabia, or several llamas.Why anyone would buy a new Corsa -- at any price -- rather than get a lovely piece of Autoshite for £1500 is beyond me. Maybe in several years I'll like this Corsa more. I seriously doubt it.And that is my rant. Thanks.

Posted

Steering wheel on the wrong side? And where are you right now?? Huh? Huh?

Posted

i'll do you one for £9.5 k seeing as you love them so much.

Posted

They are a default choice for people who don't know anything about cars.

Posted

My mate had one as a hire car when his wife crashed his Fiesta, and he hated it.This was last year and it was a 09 plate, We went in it to anther mates wedding and it was crap, Very slow and tacky inside, My mate was ragging it 4 up and it really wasn't going anywhere, that was a 1.2 model, I perfer the shape before TBH.

Posted

Make and model of cars involved in fatal road traffic accidents in the last three years (2006-08).

 

1. Vauxhall Astra and Vauxhall Corsa 41 (both cars involved in 41 each)

 

2. Vauxhall Vectra 34)

Nice work Vauxhall owners!

Posted
:D
Posted

Corsas are fucking hateful piles of wank.Always have been, always will be. GM can lard them up with as many bits of faux-luxury crap as they like and they'll still be horrible to drive.I drove a current spec Corsa 5 dr from Reading to Sheffield last year and thought it was almost the least pleasurable drive of my life. Fortunately, I then remembered driving a Pious from Dorset to Sheffield and the Corsa didn't feel quite so bad for a few fleeting seconds.The Corsa was bloody awful though, and I think it was quite a nice spec one, had a CD player, aircon, lecky loads of stuff, handsfree bluetoof phone thing etc.I've never enjoyed driving a Corsa or Vectra. I was quite looking forwards to Vauxhall going tits up in a Rover stylee. Thinking about it, GM have never made anything FWD that I've even slightly lusted after, not even an early Toronado. I've watched in wonder as Astra vans have passed my on the motorway doing apparently 200+ mph, but nothing they've built in close to 20 years has raised any interest.A 24v Senator is a goodly thing, but the FWD stuff just strikes me as being utter shite. Vectras especially...

Posted

So FWD GM stuff is crap?

Posted Image

 

lol.

However, on the subject of Corsas....

I drove a 51 plate 3 cyl one as a courtesy car a while ago as my company Astra was in the bodyshop (again). It was the worst experience of my life, and that's saying something, as I've been married twice.

Like this...

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Posted

Agreed. Had a Corsa hire car in Greece in 2001, 1 litre thing. Horrid horrid horrid. Swapped it for a Hyundai Accent, which seemed like a dream car in comparison.

Posted
  pandamonium said:

So FWD GM stuff is crap?

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That's not crap, that's cheesy Yank shite. There's a subtle difference. Basically, you've got no illusions that the ol' Celebrity is going to be any good, so every time you flick a switch and something actually happens you're impressed. Same with the pedals and steering wheel, the heater, the seats.. everything that car does is a bonus. The fact it's not very good doesn't harm it as it makes you laugh.

 

  pandamonium said:

However, on the subject of Corsas....

I drove a 51 plate 3 cyl one as a courtesy car a while ago as my company Astra was in the bodyshop (again). It was the worst experience of my life, and that's saying something, as I've been married twice.

Like this...

Posted Image

Foul aren't they. Mate of mine has a 54 plate Corsa 1.3 diesel SXi thing. It's hateful, but it averages 48 mpg with him hating it around town on a daily basis. As his other cars tend to average below 15 mpg he chooses to hate the Corsa Mon-Fri and then he ignores it for the weekends.
Posted

Haven't driven a modern Corsa so can't comment but I did have a new Fiasco Ghia courtesy car start of last year and I went from thinking it was ace to hating the bastard thing within about 8 miles.

Posted

I must say i was looking at 1.3 CDTi Corsa's before i bought my wife a Micra, I couldn't find any at a dencent price or that hadn't looked like it had been ragged around the local council estate.The Micra on the other hand seems a very nice car, It's got the 1.5 DCi engine from the Clio and returns 55mpg quite happily, Lots of storage space and quite pokey as well, Just a shame it's smokes more than Dot Cotton on a rough day, Going into the garage under warranty tomorrow to get fixed, Hopefully nothing major.

Posted
  trigger said:

The Micra on the other hand seems a very nice car, It's got the 1.5 DCi engine from the Clio and returns 55mpg quite happily, Lots of storage space and quite pokey as well, Just a shame it's smokes more than Dot Cotton on a rough day, Going into the garage under warranty tomorrow to get fixed, Hopefully nothing major.

Surely that's the same 1.5DCi I have in my Kangoo, which is horribly harsh and unpleasant. Oh and that won't even get 40mpg on average (though barn door aerodynamics obv don't help)
Posted

Same engine but yours might be the lower horsepower model, mines 86bhp, quite nippy and the on board computer reads 54-55 mpg, Quite noisey though. and smokey.

Posted

I dunno, had a ride in a mates 1.7TD corsa c today, wasnt bad, but jeeeeeeeeeeez underpowered!The interior isnt that bad quality wise, the seats are proper comfy in the rear, something small cars lack badly.However, nice to see vauxhall maximised the lifespan of the seatbelt holders of the MKIII Astra..................Then again its a rare unthrashed corsa c, because it is diesel and because its done 21000 miles in 6 and a half years.But i dont know about the newest one.................. but i do think the corsa c is better than the MKIV fiesta 1.25, but thats an unrealistic comparison as that was made to compete with the corsa B.

Posted

Gotta love the realism of the tv advert though:"OH COME ON!"Usually laced with expletives whenever I'm stuck behind one.

Posted

Having had the evening in the Corsa for a ride out to dinner in rural Oxfordshire, a few more observations:The 1.2 litre engine is worse than I thought. Just for some context, I'm not expecting V8 thrust. My daily driver in New York is an older Honda Civic 1.7. But the Corsa's 1.2 is unrefined and thrashy and slow as grass. One thing I find funny is that while in second and third gear, the gas pedal only controls the volume of the engine groan, not actual acceleration.Spec is really impressive compared to American cars. This one has automatic headlights, partial leather seats, a leather steering wheel, power front windows, and I'm sure tons of safety kit. Most of this stuff just isn't available on American b-segment cars (Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit/Jazz).Seating position is really high, like an MPV. I was next to a copper in a diesel astra at a traffic light, and realized how much lower he was seated. WHY IS IT SO SLOW?? I'm getting swarmed by OAPs in Polos in roundabouts. Some bloke in a Jag XF looked like he was going to murder me as he overtook me on a b-road.Thinking about stealing the Skoda Felicia parked a few blocks away. Might as well go slowly in shite style.

Posted

I hate the things more than you can imagine. Either driven by OAPs and women at 2/3rds of the given speed limit, or chavs (1.0 and 1.2 only mind) 2mm off your rear bumper with foglights blazing.Also, why do the 5 door Corsa B's always have thier rear fogs on?

Posted
  Negative Creep said:

I hate the things more than you can imagine. Either driven by OAPs and women at 2/3rds of the given speed limit, or chavs (1.0 and 1.2 only mind) 2mm off your rear bumper with foglights blazing.Also, why do the 5 door Corsa B's always have thier rear fogs on?

SO DEY CAN MAKE SURE YOU SEE DEM LEAVE YOU IN DER DUST.Haha searching corsa b brings up all sorts of abortions on google images.Never been a fan of these cars, and i especially dont want one.Someone in my class has a 1 litre one in white with 3 (yes 3) three spoke alloys and one steelie.lol.
Posted

You seem like a sensible and well-grounded young lad, Brammy. Get yourself a tuned Talbot Samba and show this chav-oik Corsa owner the cut of your exhaust.

Posted

Come to think of it, sambas are on my want list for a first car.Insurance group 2, cheap motoring ftw.

Posted

I hired a new Corsa about 3 months ago, a 1.4 petrol.Not all bad but:a.) Shocking on fuel. Would do 38 mpg on a run. Sorry, a Nova from 20 years ago did that.b.) The worst light switch known to Man - buried between the steering column and the door where it is utterly impossible to find in the dark. You wanna put the rear fogs on in a pea souper? Piss around trying to find which of the stupid fucking buttons clustered around the light switch. On the Nova, you just pulled the light switch back, easy.Not a bad car, but exceptionally ordinary. I remember my Nova 1.3SR from many years ago being a much better car - faster, at least as good on fuel, nicer handling and a really lightweight and lively feel to it with superb all round vision. You enjoyed driving a Nova, not so the shite Corsa. The first one from 1994 was absolute rubbish (My GF had two of the sorry shitboxes) and the second version a bit better.

Posted
  The Reverend Bluejeans said:

a.) Shocking on fuel. Would do 38 mpg on a run. Sorry, a Nova from 20 years ago did that.

I only managed 36 today. Here's my money, BP. Just take it all.
Posted

They are atrociously slow, I will agree with you on that.So slow that my mate couldn't lose my 'shit wedding car' (Amazon) on a country road. And when we stopped at some lights, I gassed the smug little bastard, because his windows were stuck down. Shagged piston rings FTW.

Posted

I've driven the current Corsa back-to-back with the previous one, and much preferred the older design! You could see out of it, it was quicker, it was more economical. Progress? Pah!Wouldn't own a Corsa at all though, even though I have a soft spot for the first post-Nova ones, having learnt to drive in one. I mean, have you seen the comedy wiper spindle play they seem to develop?!

Posted

I bought the wife this M reg 1.2i Corsa couple of years back, I didn't mind it really, As a cheap runaround just her running to and from work it was ideal, and it had a bit of poke as well, It was a step up from the Nova's i'd had in the past, Just a shame Vauxhall have now lost there way with them, The new Corsa looks twice the size of the old ones!.

 

Posted Image

 

Sadly i sold this to a bloke at work's stepson who went onto blowing the engine up.

 

Edit - still shown as taxed! It lives!

Posted

I had a hire one of these (SXi for the sportyness) a couple of weeks ago. It wouldn't do 60 uphill, extremely low gearing, thirsty as hell.I agree about the older one being better. I followed a 12v onto the M8 from Edinburgh. We came of the roundabout and both floored it. He pulled away and nothing, literally nothing, happened.Worryingly according to the interweb stuff I have seen the engines are rated at 80+ BHP. I seem to remember my old 81BHP Maestro being a hell of a lot quicker. In fact I remember the previous 1.3 Maestro I had as a loaner being a lot quicker.

Posted

I had a 1.4 Design on hire earlier in the year. The fuel economy worked out at just-on 40mpg for a gentle, 70-75mph run from Basingstoke to Manchester and back. Not exactly progress, is it? I have figured out why, though - the gearing is too short. As it is in the Astras and Zafiras.Once upon a time, Vauxhalls were legendary for the length (fnarr) of their top gear. The Cavaliers and Belmont I had would be ticking over at 3000rpm in 5th and indicating 90mph. Now, you get more like 4000rpm at 75 and a level of mechanical thrash that's frankly unbelievable. And they still haven't got the steering and handling right - no change from the early 80's there, then. And the visibility is atrocious due to the thick pillars and shallow rear window.The Design spec Corsa also has cruddy trim pieces fashioned from translucent plastic that look like half-chewed Gummi bears. That "leather" is just vynide, and seems to inhabit the interior of every Vauxhall product sold today. £14k list? Give over. I'd rather have (a relative term) a base-spec 1.4 Astra - not a great car, but by far the best of the bad bunch I've driven from the current Vauxhall range (up to a Zafira 1.8 petrol) this year. At least the Astra had no pretensions and felt refreshingly honest as a no-frills transportation device.Take it back and ask for a Peugeot 308HDI. Uglier than an ugly thing, but by far the best car National has rented me all year. 68MPG under the same conditions.

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