2006 VAUXHALL Corsa reviews

Vauxhall Corsa 1.0 Life 2006

29-10-2008 - Well I’ve recently bought a 1.0 Club on a 06 plate (not the new shape) with less than 10k on the clock. It’s immaculate both inside and out. I am firstly amazed by it’s tiny motor. Having driven many small hatchbacks over the years and being less than happy with their respective engines. The tiny motor in the Corsa is a revelation, no doubt due in no small part to it’s 4 vales per cylinder design (twinport). It’ll win the traffic light Grand Prix (if you want it to). It’ll pull like a train up-hill. Also it’s so flexible that you can be in 5th gear running less than 1000rpms and it’ll still pull away smoothly and swiftly, of course if you need to accelerate sharply you’ll need to change down, but for normal day to day driving it’s more than happy being driven this way. So it may only have 60bhp but how it delivers it is spot on. Ride comfort is also quite good, soaking up the majority of bumps with no fuss. Sleeping policemen too can be tackled with no need to slow right down, as has been the case with other cars I’ve driven. Parking is so easy it’s almost laughable, with plenty of glass and excellent wing-mirrors it’s an absolute doddle to parallel-park in even the smallest spaces. Also here is where the speed sensitive power steering comes into it’s own. I’ve already said that going is good, but stopping is better, with ABS and Brake Assist fitted, it really does stop on it’s nose. At first the brakes seem too sharp, but after only a few miles you wonder how you ever managed without them. Cornering is sure-footed, but the skinny high profile tyres don’t really lend themselves to great road holding, however, I’ve no doubt that if you’ve a mind to that a new set of alloys with wider rubber would cure this issue. For me personally the car pulls and stops so well that it’s no chore to slow down that little bit for a tight bend. All the controls fall easily to hand and have a nice positive feel to them. My only gripe is that the clutch feels slightly off-set to me, in as much as I have to move my leg more to the right than I have been used to, but I have adapted to this too. The upside if this is there’s a massive amount of room for you to rest your foot in when not using the clutch. Being a 3 door car access to the rear is always a problem, but the car helps by virtue of having seats that fold well out of the way, maximizing the available room for you to get into the rear seats. Now it’s a small car so rear space is never going to be good, but if like myself you have small kids then it’s not a problem and you can even (when parked) turn around to hand them things as their never far away. The boot too is on the small side, but it’s deep and a good shape, again making the most of the available space, You’ll get 3-4 of those blue bags that Tesco sells (called big green bag) in there, but little else. The seats are easy to fold down though so increasing the space is easy if needed. You’ll be making less stops at the pumps too, with 50+MPG achievable. So to summarise... 1. Goes well 2. Stops better 3. Easy to park 4. Comfortable 5. 50+ MPG too So what have I learned from owning a Corsa? Ignore the press and test drive one yourself and make your own informed decision. Why? Because most car manufacturers develop their cars constantly and on a 06 plate the Corsa is arguably better than it’s ever been, but the consumer will never know this because the press are to focused in reviewing the new model. (which btw is not as good as it’s made up to be).