Doesn't set anything alight (Vauxhall Corsa Comfort 1.0i 12v 3-door)

Member Name: sax_man_al

Product:	Vauxhall Corsa Comfort 1.0i 12v 3-door
Date:	11/08/09 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, reasonably roomy

Disadvantages: Slow, slow, slow, not very economical only 30-35mpg

My friend got married last summer, posing a slight problem, I was working in Shetland, and they were in North Wales. So, I drove to the airport in Shetland, had to stay the night there with friends, then flew first thing the next morning to Edinburgh and hired this car for a few days. I drove it all the way from Edinburgh to Abersoch in North Wales so had a good chance to test this car out on a variety of roads.

It was the cheapest car I could hire, and was apparently picked by the hire company because it won car of the year when it was brought out.

Three doors are fine if you're not needing to be jumping in and out of the back all the time, and there was room in the boot for my luggage. Having learnt to drive back in the late 90's in a corsa, I have to say this is no longer a small car, and is really quite big! Along with the size is the weight, and the burden this puts on the engine.

A small 1L engine, 3 cylinders is terribly underpowered for a car of this weight. Pulling away you had to give it quite some juice to get it going, but this isn't too bad around town when you are limited to 30mph anyway. Get out on the open road though and you soon realise the problem. If you want to get to 60 or 70 it seems to take about a week, not great if you are on A roads and there is a caravan/tractor/lorry to overtake! Once you've got to 60/70 this car is happy to cruise there, as long as you don't slow down for other traffic, or come to a hill. The 3cyl engine when you push it sounds fun, but that's all you can say for it.

You would think that a little car with a little engine would be efficient, but sadly no, partly because you need to accellerate hard to get anywhere, and the weight of it you will only get 30-35mpg. To put this in perspective that is the same as a 4x4, or, the 150bhp diesel astra does 50mpg!

What is there to say about the rest of the car. Well, it's comfortable, has all the usual bits and pieces you would expect in a modern car. The plastics all seem OK, nothing special, but nothing horrid either. Four of us fitted in fine for a trip out to my friends wedding for the day, and there were no reliability problems while I had it.

I could have hired a diesel ford focus, which, even though it would have cost more, I would have saved that money on buying less fuel and had a more entertaining drive too.

Summary: Accellerating is like trying to flog a dead donkey! 0-60 about a week.

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