Mini Rant: Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 (2009)

[Mr Lobster]

I've been blatting about in a Combo van for the last couple of weeks which is basically the previous generation Corsa with a box on the back. It's a 1.3 CDTi and is hatefully slow and manages a dangerous amount of understeer in damp / wet conditions - it actually feels as though the tyres are made from wood. Not comfy, not fast, not particularly good on fuel, not much really. Even a Kangoo would be better.New Corsa is worse though, too big yet with not much room inside, slow, thrashy engines, ugly and with little in the way of redeeming features.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

£14k list? Give over. I'd rather have (a relative term) a base-spec 1.4 Astra

Or something with a resale value - a Golf SDi diesel for example. Not fast, but great on fuel, nicely made and pleasant to drive.GM are on drugs if they think any Corsa is worth 14 bags. They're £7995 and not a bean more.

[Cavcraft]

Thing is though they seem to be shifting them. Recent experiences on a shite-to-shite comparison of older models has shown me that the Astra for example wasn't actually really bettered by so called rivals.No idea about re-sales and would imagine the Golf would do better due to it's image but hand on heart the Mk4 Astra in my experience is extremely well made and if the prices are about on par I'd have one of those over a Golf or Focus anytime. In fact I do!Older Fiestas were cracking cars and I had loads of them but again I personally found the Corsa B to be a better 'alround' car. They didn't rot too badly, the 8V engines are legendary and the re-sales are still shite-hot.For me the problem with modern Vauxhalls are similar to that of new-ish Mercs in that it's stupid, annoying sensor type problems that cause the most aggro and you can see why people get fed up with them.Quite likely I wouldn't get on with some modern ones as I love the fact I can get into an old one, no where everything is, no it'll get me wherever I'm going and no it will be a cold day in hell before it breaks down on me. Ok, doesn't show much ambition if you like but even stuff like Vectras are very reliable if seemingly unpopular and often sneered at by badge snobs. What are other similar sized new cars like in comparison to new Corsas? I'd imagine most modern small cars are heavy and relatively gutless due to airbags etc but goes without saying the rivals could well be more lively and fun to drive.

[brammy777]

Slightly off the current topic, but i just went onto parkers and and looked at prices for the new astra and it suggested i look at MKII astras too............

[retro80sboy]

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.

The thing is id NEVER buy a new car, a total waste of money.Id much rather spend pennys on old shite instead, not everyone understands me but im sure a few on here do!

[Guest]

£14K, that's bonkers! You can get a Chevrolet Epica for that.

 

 

Mmm, Epica. Fat blob versus three-box saloon. 1.2 Ecotec versus 2.0 Porsche-designed straight six twincam. Brittle plastic versus brittle plastic.

 

I wish I was rich, I would do a special order Epica in taxi-spec white and drive around feeling like a KING!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

2005 1.2 Corsas seem to have developed a taste for snapping their camshafts, working up hundreds of posts on HonestJohn about it. Nasty, expensive fault, that.

[r.welfare]

Or something with a resale value - a Golf SDi diesel for example. Not fast, but great on fuel, nicely made and pleasant to drive.

Of course. For certain, a switched-on private buyer is probably going to choose a Golf - still a truly classless car, even though it is somewhat trading on the status of the Mk1 and Mk2 for solidity and reliability. I would imagine that the percentage of private buyers is higher still for Aurises and Hyundai i30s.Unfortunately any Astra - even the new one - is going to say one of three things about it's driver. Either "I am driving a hired vehicle"; "My fleet manager cares only about the maximum discount that can be obtained on company vehicles"; or "I work for a Vauxhall dealership".However - for the buyer who wants new (or nearly-new), and is in it for the long game (say 6-10 years), I do wonder if a basic Astra with it's inherent enormous discount on list is not more of a persuasive argument. Reliability and "driving/ownership pleasures" aside, the cost of ownership if bought and serviced right could be a fair bit lower. After all, at 10 years old, the Golf might be worth twice as much, but that's £1,000 in real terms.Cavette - the Mk4 Astra isn't a bad buy, especially with the fairly viceless and tough Family 2 1.6 8v. The interior is indeed hardy and the 12-year anti-corrosion warranty a good thing. My local garage has two 02-platers, both 1.6 8v LS spec in doom blue, one even has police-spec steel wheels and they are quite honest things to punt.The only other recent small car I've driven is the Grande Punto, which uses the same chassis as the Corsa. But it felt far better to drive, was easier on the eye outside and easier to see out of when inside. Plus - get this for a Fiat! - it felt of higher quality in the cabin, and the engine (1.2 I think) didn't feel overwhelmed.Hirst - I'm sure there's someone at JCT600 who can help you realise your dream!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

2005 1.2 Corsas seem to have developed a taste for snapping their camshafts, working up hundreds of posts on HonestJohn about it. Nasty, expensive fault, that.

As well as timing chains, coil packs etc. VW 3 pots are known for chains as well, big job to replace.Bring back the Family B!!Astras are okay but the Golf is just nicer. Drives a bit better and the interior is much nicer - just feels like it's worth the money plus the resale value is miles ahead.New cars are okay if you do the sums right and buy the right car. Old cars are all very well but sometimes something nice and new with a/c and a good sound system is nice. Vectra C's made good Enterprise hire cars. Pleasant enough to drive apart from those bastarding indicators, yours for a day and nothing to worry about!

[Mr Lobster]

What are other similar sized new cars like in comparison to new Corsas?

Better than Corsas in general. New Fiesta is a lovely car to drive. 1000 times better than a Corsa. Yeh it's bigger than Fiestas of old but its still a nice thing. PAS is overly light but thats the same with most small cars. Mazda 2 is nice as well being Fiesta based. New Seat Ibiza is also pretty good and Twingo is nice enough although basic ones are just that.In short - theres lots of small cars that are better than a Corsa.

[Pillock]

 

Says it all really. They truely are a car for someone who wakes up one morning, thinks "I need a new car" and then puts no further thought into it other than which dealer is easiest to get to.

 

A couple of years ago, I had two ways of getting to work - the MIL's Corsa 973cc 3-cylinder on a 51 plate, or my bike. And I'm honestly not joking when I tell you I got up 30 minutes early every single morning, put on my scruffy clothes, rode to work (this included some snowy days), got changed and then did it all again in reverse. It was a nicer experience than driving the car.

 

It needed to be 4000rpm or higher to actually feel like it was moving, but at about 4500rpm it started to run out of steam. By 5000rpm it sounded like a train carrying cymbals had hit a Sewing Machine Testing Facility, the noise was incredible. This is a 51 plate car, it's a 'new' car. The interior was made of the hardest plastics known to man, yet they'd treated them to make sure they marked really easily, and then shrank slightly to induce rattles. The electrics were terrible, I was always tracing faults on that and then going to the scrapyard to buy random parts in the hope it'd fix the issue.

 

Bear in mind though it was the previous model which you can pick up for I'd guess £1200-£4000 depending on age and spec. I can reel you off a list of far far better ways to spend that kind of cash, like a T-reg Saxo for £300 and a bloody good holiday.

[pogweasel]

A couple of years ago, I had two ways of getting to work - the MIL's Corsa 973cc 3-cylinder on a 51 plate, or my bike. And I'm honestly not joking when I tell you I got up 30 minutes early every single morning, put on my scruffy clothes, rode to work (this included some snowy days), got changed and then did it all again in reverse. It was a nicer experience than driving the car.It needed to be 4000rpm or higher to actually feel like it was moving, but at about 4500rpm it started to run out of steam. By 5000rpm it sounded like a train carrying cymbals had hit a Sewing Machine Testing Facility, the noise was incredible. This is a 51 plate car, it's a 'new' car. The interior was made of the hardest plastics known to man, yet they'd treated them to make sure they marked really easily, and then shrank slightly to induce rattles. The electrics were terrible, I was always tracing faults on that and then going to the scrapyard to buy random parts in the hope it'd fix the issue.Bear in mind though it was the previous model which you can pick up for I'd guess £1200-£4000 depending on age and spec. I can reel you off a list of far far better ways to spend that kind of cash, like a T-reg Saxo for £300 and a bloody good holiday.

LOL. So true, those 3-pot jobbies are truly dreadful, and I am amazed they are still offered as an option.

[Pete-M]

What are other similar sized new cars like in comparison to new Corsas?

Better than Corsas in general. New Fiesta is a lovely car to drive. 1000 times better than a Corsa. Yeh it's bigger than Fiestas of old but its still a nice thing. PAS is overly light but thats the same with most small cars. Mazda 2 is nice as well being Fiesta based. New Seat Ibiza is also pretty good and Twingo is nice enough although basic ones are just that.In short - theres lots of small cars that are better than a Corsa.

From my viewpoint, pretty much everything on the road is better than a Corsa. Some of the new Chevrolets are pretty crap to drive but they're not much, if any, worse than the Corsa and they're a lot cheaper.Fiestas are a light years ahead of Corsas to drive, and have been ever since the Fizzy got 16v lumps, PAS and a suspension makeover in the mid '90s. Clios are cheaper and better on fuel, Puntos are more fun to drive and at least have a bit of flair about them. Micras are more reliable, better built and less likely to be found upside down in a field on a Sunday morning.I've not started on the ride/handling combo. The ride of an ex-minicab Nissan Stanza combined with the handling of a 1750 Allegro with knackered shocks and cheap remoulds inflated to 200 psi.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

£14K, that's bonkers! You can get a Chevrolet Epica for that.

 

 

Mmm, Epica. Fat blob versus three-box saloon. 1.2 Ecotec versus 2.0 Porsche-designed straight six twincam. Brittle plastic versus brittle plastic.

 

I wish I was rich, I would do a special order Epica in taxi-spec white and drive around feeling like a KING!

whats this about a straight six twincam? Is that right?

[pogweasel]

Apparently that is true!

http://www.chevrolet.co.uk/cars/epica/f ... specs.html

No idea why they would do that

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I think that configurator thing is a load of balls, it reckons you can get a 4-cyl or 6-cyl SOHC diesel of exactly the same capacity and exactly the same power output. It mentions a 5-cyl option as well but I cant get that one back now.

[Pete-M]

It was telling me the diesel is a 5 pot.I'd like to think that one day someone will buy an Epica and it'll have a V16 made exclusively from the missing 4th cylinders of Corsa 1.0s.Slightly out of balance, naturally.

[Guest]

whats this about a straight six twincam? Is that right?

It is absolutely right, I've got the brochure and everything.The diesel is some pretty nondescript 4cyl OHC (probably with a turbo), the petrol is a straight-6 DOHC 24V by Porsche.Amusingly, there's two specifications (LS and LT) - the lower one can be had with both engines, but the higher one can only be had with the diesel. Come on Chevrolet, sort it out! You've done it the wrong way round.

[UglyAmerican]

Not quite sure if it is classed as similar sized to a Corsa, but I've been quite pleased with my Fiat Panda.

Love the Panda! Base spec is the way to do it, that's the proper Italian small car way of thinking. If a Panda is good enough for James May I reckon it's good enough for me.Pity they're not sold in the U.S. and it's impossible to import any car newer than 25 years old.

[UglyAmerican]

Incidentally, a brisk 2 mile walk to Sainsbury in the rain at 12 degrees today reminded me of the beauty of the Corsa. It's faster and drier than walking!For 25 quid a day I should have kept the damn thing through the weekend. Oh who am I kidding, I don't have 100 pounds.

[Volksy]

For a recent jaunt up to Newcastle I hired a car - due to ongoing problems with the Volvo (Now cured thankfully ) - And as I have a fooked knee it's more comfortable to drive an Auto. So I hired a Group C car from Enterprise, who's service has always been top notch I must say, last time I got an Astra 1.8 Auto, this time a Corsa 1.2 was waiting for me. What a horrid horrid piece of shit. The Manu-matic transmission was appauling, forever pitching you toward the windscreen by changing gear at the wrong time, in a pendantic pensioner slow motion kind of way. I'm sure the robot in the gearbox was stoned.

 

You could try and smooth the changes out by letting of the acelerator just before it changed, but the sometimes the stoned robot would then think you were slowing down and not change at all, leading to looking like you have just started to learn to drive by progressing in a way skippy the kangaroo would be quite proud of.

 

The rest of the car was pretty shoddy too, low rent plastics, really ugly too, it was the 1.2 5dr on little trolley wheels. Thank heavens for the 'E' sticker on the back, so it was obvious to most people that I hadn't shelled out/scrappaged for one!

[Station]

Mk1 was a fine enough car. The rest are just descriptive as to how mass-production has always been - copy off everyone else and design the car around the current big design trend (the headlights at the moment). The Focus' 'edge design' was copied on virtually every car, and now we currently have the stretchy 'MY CAR'S AN EAGLE!' design, again having the car designed around the headlights and those crazy big shoulders/hips at the back, with more vast moulding to fit the rear lights on in proportion.I expect as much from a Corsa as I do from a Fiesta, or an Escort or a Focus, etc, they'll be crap around a racing track (as they're not racing cars ) and acceptable going A-B which if I remember correctly, that's what they're manufactured in huge amounts for.I've driven loads of car over long distances, but I never bought them new for five figures, and I've never stepped out of them and suddenly turned into Quentin Wilson or Richard Hammond and reviewed them over their good and bad points, and decided they're shit anyway because it's the wrong badge or something.I grew up being driven to around (when they worked) in proper sub £200 shit heaps like mk1 Escort van, a Peugeot 104, a Rover SD1, and an Opel Ascona because my folk's were skint! The cars were fucking apalling and drove horribly, and never 100% worked. Little did I know 20 years later people would be comparing them favourably over reliable motors that are nice enough to drive.

[Pete-M]

Mk1 was a fine enough car.Little did I know 20 years later people would be comparing £200 shitheaps favourably over reliable motors that are nice enough to drive.

Dude, Corsas are shite. I don't expect a racing car when I get into a 1.3 litre shopping car, but I do expect them to feel light, nimble and reasonably responsive. Fiat can do it, Ford can do it, Peugeot can, Citroen can, Renault can, even VW can (although they do tend to feel a bit stodgier than the others). Even a Micra is a huge amount more enjoyable to drive than a Corsa. GM can't. or won't, do it. They make cars to be driven by people who don't like driving. The Corsa has truly atrocious steering - even compared to a Mk2 Escort van or an SD1, GM engineer huge dead spots into the steering so if you suddenly turn the wheel on the motorway nothing will happen - it's to stop them being sued. The Corsa has terrible ride quality, they crash into bumps that other small cars don't even notice. Compare the ride quality of a Saxo or AX to the Corsa and the Corsa loses out massively. GM haven't yet made a FWD car that both rides and handles well, and the only GM product I've ever driven with decent steering was a tweaked Corvette ZR1.Corsas tend to have half decent engines, and they look ok, but they're awful cars. Yes, they can be reliable, but even that is getting rarer. I've seen probably 30+ 1.3 CDTi Corsas and Combos broken for parts after mechanical failures. Central locking motors fail regularly, electric power steering goes iffy fairly often, gearboxes don't last ling, injector failures are common on the diesels, sensors are forever going kaput on petrols and diesels. Trim wears badly - you look at the 54 plate shape Corsas and look at the horn buttons on the steering wheel, I've lost track of the number of those I've replaced.They're shit. Bad to drive, bad handling, unreliable, expensive, slow and not that good on fuel for what they are.

[Mr Lobster]

I grew up being driven to around (when they worked) in proper sub £200 shit heaps like mk1 Escort van, a Peugeot 104, a Rover SD1, and an Opel Ascona because my folk's were skint! The cars were fucking apalling and drove horribly, and never 100% worked. Little did I know 20 years later people would be comparing them favourably over reliable motors that are nice enough to drive.

It's not so much that a £200 heap is better than a new Corsa - they're not. It's more that for a new car the Corsa is so much worse than any of the competition or anything the competition have produced in the last few years.It really only sells due to significant discounting and being the default choice of those who don't know any better.

[Station]

Corsas ARE shite, but I know they're going to be shite before I drive one. I'm not expecting to be blown away by the soft mcpherson suspension and trailing arms at the back, or be pulled back into the seat by the 1.2 engine.It's more like stating the obvious.I had my driving lesson in one, and then I had a diesel Corsavan. I expect nothing less than mediocre driving from pretty much any hatchback, which is what millions of people do down mediocre motorways in mediocre British weather everyday.

[chester drawers]

Grimmest contemporary small thing I’ve driven was an Aveo 1.4 LT. It’s alleged these things have 99 horses and will do 109mph. I wasn’t expecting a sports car but I WAS wasted by a 12v Corsa. And there was only 5 quid of petrol and my modest frame in it. It appears "Chevrolet" attempted to make a gold-effect badge on the front of these horrors by placing the foil from an old Kit Kat wrapper behind some yellowish translucent plastic. Someone prodded this with their index finger at upon my arrival at work and it fell off. A Picanto feels like it’s been milled from a block of titanium in comparison.

[Cavcraft]

Corsas ARE shite, but I know they're going to be shite before I drive one. I'm not expecting to be blown away by the soft mcpherson suspension and trailing arms at the back, or be pulled back into the seat by the 1.2 engine.It's more like stating the obvious.I had my driving lesson in one, and then I had a diesel Corsavan. I expect nothing less than mediocre driving from pretty much any hatchback, which is what millions of people do down mediocre motorways in mediocre British weather everyday.

That, for me, is the best post in this thread.

[retrogeezer]

A girl that lives down the road traded in her VERY tidy 3 dr Astra SXi for a new black Corsa something or other....I seriously could not belive it when I saw the new thing on the drive. She said it was because it was cheaper to insure and was a 5 door but her daughter is now 5 and it's much less hassle getting kids in the back at that age than when they are babies.

 

To think it probably cost around £10k for the trade up is unbelievable!

 

This is like the Astra she had:

 

[danthecapriman]

My experiences with corsas have been pretty bad. I hate them.I had a 53 plate diesel van, it was the most uncomfortable vehicle ive ever driven, as an ex mechanic ive driven a lot! but these things suck. The seats were awful and wernt adjustable in the way they desperatly needed to be. the interior was cheap, plasticy and not a nice place to be, now I know its a van but evan as modern vans go it was shit.The engine was unbeleivably underpowered and very rough. There was a fault that couldnt seem to be fixed no matter how much time it spent in the garage, this caused the management light to randomly come on then performance became dire! Starting, especiually from cold was near impossible. I once got stuck on a roundabout after it cut out for no reason. After it eventually restarted I drove for a mile or so in 1st gear foot to the floor, just to teech it a lesson! And I had to drive it on the starter a couple of times to get it out of the way!It eventually died by setting itself on fire after being parked for a few hours! Very funny and the best thing for it! It was 4 years old and only had 50K on the clock.My dad has one, a 1.2 petrol he uses as a learner driver car, its a 53 reg and has never passed an mot first time round! and after about 40K had to have all the stupid plastic gear linkages replaced! Its in very good condition too but its just not built to last.Why anyone would waste their money on one is lost on me. There are loads of small car alternatives around, if that sort of thing is what you want that are both far better and cheaper!

[Cavcraft]

If anyone (local-ish) comes across an 8V Corsa for sale cheap let me know please, I can't sell 'em quick enough!