Vauxhall Corsa Life
 | | Vauxhall Corsa Life engine |
DESPITE being around since 2006, Vauxhall's supermini contender, the Corsa, remains one of the best small cars you can buy.
Offering good looks, a refined drive and excellent build quality, the Corsa is still a serious contender if your next car needs to be small and economical.
 | | Vauxhall Corsa Life |
And the Corsa's case for taking the "green crown" just got a lot more convincing with the launch of the Luton-based firm's most economical ever - the Corsa ecoFLEX.
Pumping out a miserly 105g/km of nasty old CO2, the revised three-door only ecoFLEX shaves 14g/km off the outgoing model's emissions figures - and has the potential to return an amazing 85.6mpg on the Government's official extra urban fuel cycle and 70.6mpg on the Combined cycle.
So even if you take those figures with a pinch of salt, in real world driving the little Corsa is still a seriously economical small car.
But despite those impressive CO2 emissions figures the ecoFLEX remains in the £35 per year road tax bracket because only sub-100g/km CO2 vehicles achieve the Holy Grail of free road tax.
Never mind, perhaps Vauxhall will achieve that with the next version but until then the new model boasts all the attributes which has made the current Corsa range so popular.
And it's the car's immense sense of quality that consistently impresses right from the moment you shut the driver's door with a weighty thunk. All the major controls are well placed and the five-speed gearbox - which comes with a shorter second-gear ration to improve responsiveness around town and a longer fourth and fifth gear for quieter motorway cruising and better economy - feels suitably robust and accurate.
Good quality plastics and well-dampened switchgear continue to create the impression that you could quite easily be sitting in an upmarket Volkswagen or even BMW - it really is that good.
The only issue with the three-door model is thick rear pillars which make three-quarter vision slightly tricky - for instance when checking over the shoulder to move lanes on motorways.
But with narrower 175/70 low-rolling resistance tyres and lighter 14-inch steel wheels, a lower ride height and tweaked aerodynamics, and a 45kg weight saving over the previous model, engineers have worked hard to improve the Corsa's miles per gallon figures.
Thankfully during this process the impressive 1.3 litre CDTi diesel engine hasn't lost any of its willingness - and with 73bhp and a very decent 170Nm of torque to propel it along, the ecoFLEX has the potential to mix it in the outside lane of motorways if necessary.
What is a shame from a driver's point of view is that Vauxhall hasn't fitted any kind of dashboard indicator which lights up at the optimum time to change up or down gears - and there wasn't even a trip computer giving the car's average mpg readout in the £11,590 Life trim vehicle tested. Air conditioning in this model is, incidentally, also a £500 option.
That aside, the ecoFLEX, which costs £12,130 in Club trim, is an enticing package for fuel-conscious buyers. The Ford Fiesta Econetic may offer a slightly more involving drive but at £14,962 it is far more expensive and with an antiquated and inflexible rear-seat folding set-up it is also far less practical. - Neil Greenfield
VAUXHALL CORSA LIFE 1.3 CDTi ecoFLEX - from £11,590
|
|
|