Vauxhall Corsa (2023 - ) review

As great as the potential savings are from running a Corsa Electric there’s no escaping the fact this petrol-engined version costs as much as £12,000 less like-for-like in a crude comparison. That startling bottom line number is less dramatic when you factor in monthly finance costs, potential buying incentives like salary sacrifice schemes for electric cars and more, but it’s a sign of how much more it still costs to build electric cars compared with their combustion-engined equivalents. Given the Corsa has always appealed to young drivers looking for an affordable first car that’s going to remain a big consideration, too. While we may favour the closely related Peugeot 208 (they’re basically the same car underneath) the Vauxhall is also a bit cheaper, so again scores on value.

Vauxhall is now part of the huge Stellantis group, which is good news given all the brands under its ownership seem to have improved their quality and reliability. As standard Vauxhall offers the industry standard three-year manufacturer warranty, though you can upgrade this at extra cost to an extended one if you feel it necessary.

Even in its most basic trim level the Corsa includes safety features like LED headlights, warnings (and then interventions) if you appear to be drifting out of your lane and a forward collision warning to snap you out of your daydream if it looks like you’re going to crash into something in front of you. And automatic emergency braking if you don’t respond. Cruise control an ‘intelligent’ speed limiter, six airbags and rear parking bleepers are also standard. Go up a grade and you get the genuinely useful blind-spot alerts and a reversing camera while the top model gets Vauxhall’s clever adaptive LED headlights, which cleverly adjust their beam pattern to make night feel like day without dazzling any oncoming drivers.

We’ve got used to small cars carrying off big-car comfort and refinement, something rivals like the Renault Clio do with real style. But the Corsa feels a little unrefined in comparison, with a disconcertingly bouncy ride. After enjoying the smooth, silent power of the electric version the somewhat noisy, thrashy sound of the petrol one feels like going back to a bygone era as well, though it’s possible we’ve just got a bit spoiled! For the driver and front-seat passenger it’s a reasonably spacious and comfortable cabin, though, and once you’re settled at a cruise the refinement issues fade into the background. Again, it’s a small car so expectations realistic on how roomy it will feel in the back. But grown-ups need to duck their heads to get in, and once inside it feels pretty tight. If you’re buying as a family car - and can stretch to it - we’d suggest looking further up the range to the Astra or Mokka instead.

We like Vauxhall’s policy of ‘de-toxing’ its model ranges into a simplified, three-step progression through trim levels and the bare minimum of options on top, these including a panoramic roof, winter pack with heated seats and steering wheel or two-tone paint. Which removes a lot of the agony of choice, and makes the buying process less stressful as a result. All new Corsas get the much improved 10-inch central screen, running more powerful software with a relatively no-nonsense interface. Others do it with more style though, the Renault Clio again showing its class here while the Peugeot 208 rather shows up its Vauxhall cousin’s dowdiness with its snazzier interior design. All but the base trim get the bigger of the two digital instrument clusters now used by all Corsas, be they petrol or electric, but it’s still lacking any real wow factor. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are, of course, supported, and now connect wirelessly, the top version letting you ditch the cables entirely with its wireless charging.

Non-electric Corsas use versions of the same 1.2-litre, three-cylinder petrol engine in three different power outputs, all but the 75 horsepower base version turbocharged. This is welcome where fitted but refinement isn’t all that impressive, the power delivery isn’t all that smooth and the gearshift a bit notchy and difficult to use. We didn’t try the automatic but, on that basis, it might not be a bad shout. None of this is especially inspiring, which is a shame because life with a Toyota Aygo X recently proved that small cars with underpowered engines can still be fun to drive if manufacturers can be bothered to sweat the details. In the Corsa the engines provide propulsion, nothing more, nothing less. There is a hybrid version coming as well, and in theory this could bridge the gap between the regular petrols and the full electric in both price and performance. As soon as we get to drive it we’ll let you know!