Vauxhall Corsa 1.4i 16v Club 3dr

Road Test

Your Say

Vauxhall Corsa 1.4i 16v Club 3dr

Test date 03 October 2006 Price as tested £11,075

For Refinement, smooth ride, quality cabin, fine handling, strong brakes

AgainstModest performance, little feedback, some models under-specified

The new Corsa is a small car, but a big deal for General Motors. “The new Corsa is super-important,” says GM’s head of global product development, Bob Lutz. “It’s the core car; it’s the base of the pyramid.”

In that case, this new car had better be good. Especially given that one of the big problems for GM Europe over the past few years has been – as the company admits – a weak Corsa. At the risk of spoiling our verdict, ‘weak’ is not an accusation you’d level at the new car.

There’s another thing that the new Corsa is not, and that’s compact. This new car – which arrived for test in 1.4-litre Club form – joins the burgeoning ranks of burgeoning superminis. The Renault Clio, Fiat Punto, Peugeot 207 and the Corsa are nearly four metres long. They’re safer and comfier than ever, true, but in the process they can lose the spark and vim that made them so appealing in the first place.

The Clio has certainly lost some of its brio, and for the first time the Punto requires something more than a 1.2-litre engine to fizz it along with vigour. But the new Corsa has an advantage over the other pair: the old one wasn’t actually much fun anyway.