OK, not a great car, perhaps, but WE canna complain... (Vauxhall Corsa (pre 2000))

Member Name: sidneygee

Product:	Vauxhall Corsa (pre 2000)
Date:	16/10/00 (5021 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: costs, ease of driving

Disadvantages: driving position, Vauxhall servicing

We bought a Vauxhall Corsa Breeze 5 door 1.4 litre (8 valve) on 1st August 1997 and ran it until June 2000, covering over 29,000 miles. We then sold it to our elder daughter for when she started work. She ran it until March 2005, when she sold it at 54,182 miles.

Whilst we owned the car, it was driven regularly by myself and Heather and our 3 children and I still drove it occasionally until it was sold. Both our younger daughter and our son learned to drive using it, the younger daughter actually passing her driving test in the car because of a frightful debacle by the AA driving school leaving her without a car on the day of her test (!!!) ? But that is another story (that has been 'aired' in another review)

It is a very reasonable car to drive around town, but I found it quite tiring on a longer journey, because of the off-set pedals giving me a pain in the thigh. There again, not many have my ‘build’ (long body, relatively short legs!!)

The radio/cassette player was a bit disappointing in that the cassette mechanism started slipping badly after about 18 months? use. I replaced it with a Sony radio/CD unit, and had the speakers up-graded (but in doing so lost the radio station display on the display panel).

One essential attribute of the Breeze model of this vintage is that it has power steering as standard. IMHO this is an absolute essential, having driven examples without power steering. It also has a rev counter and the display panel for time/date/outside temperature/radio station (as long as you stick to Vauxhall radios). It also has a manual sliding sunroof (aircon not readily available then) and with minimal maintenance this proved a boon.

The green metallic paint work was still very shiny and the two traffic accidents that it has had in our daughter’s ownership (neither affecting our daughter's No Claims bonus) have been expertly repaired and the metallic green paint well-matched. The interior has stood up well to wear and tear. The Vauxhall velour over-mats fitted when new were just beginning to look very tired, and could do with replacement. Twice, I repaired holes in the drivers' side with a piece of another mat glued on with Copydex. I also fitted an imitation carbon fibre trim pack for my daughter that has helped to make the interior a little different (at a cost of £23).

One very important feature of the Corsa of this period is that there is a very useful area on top of the dashboard in front of the passenger. We bought a small rubber mat from the dealer to fit this space, and it is ideal for putting letters to be posted, or small handbags. A feature that you don't find on the latest models from any manufacturer that I am aware of.

We had no mechanical problems at all during this family ownership, the 3 annual dealer services we had in our ownership costing a total of about £350. However, I carried out oil/oil filter changes myself about half-way between each main service (following a piece of advice from a motoring magazine, that engines benefit from oil changes no more than every 5-6,000 miles, even where the manufacturer recommends longer periods). With an oil filter costing less than £4 from Halfords, and 5 litres of GTX or similar oil from Makro costing about £7 when on offer, there is no real excuse....

Unfortunately, I became rather unhappy (for that, read as "..steaming #*&£#! mad?) with the poor level of service provided by the Vauxhall main dealers (Belmont Motors and Premier Motors of Edinburgh who carried out the three services between them). My opinion has not altered subsequently following services of my Astra. At the second annual service (at Premier), the car had covered 18,500 miles. The service cost £120 but a little later I noticed the performance had lost its edge. I checked the spark plugs and found them noticeably worn and, by the account given in the Haynes Manual, should have been replaced at this (second annual) service.

The main dealer disagreed, telling me that they were “satisfactory” (but how would they have known since I reckon they had NOT removed them!) and they would not normally replace them until “after 25,000 miles”. But they did admit that if I had put it in for a service with over 20,000 miles, they would have fitted the plugs and they would not have charged extra (!!!).

Replacement of the spark plugs at 19,000 (and again at 37,000, when the plug leads were also replaced to sort out a slight mis-fire, and 54,000) miles restored the performance. Another problem I found was that the brake pads were almost completely worn out when I carried out the intermediate oil change (at 22,000 miles). I therefore replaced the pads myself at just less than 24,000 miles. They would not have lasted until the next due service (at about 27,000 miles), so I consider that this should have at least been noted at the second service (if indeed they had been checked at all at this service?).

If the brake pads had not been replaced at this stage, then the discs would have become scored and would have needed replacement themselves at the 3 year service (at about 28,500 miles). This is not an uncommon replacement that keeps the main dealers in business and, all in all, main dealer servicing is just not at all what I would have hoped for. A new exhaust from KwikFit at about 3 years’ old cost just £34, but lasted only for just over 2 years. A ‘Budget’ replacement in 2003 seemed better (at £44). The battery was replaced in 2002 (for £22 from Makro).


When I carried out an Intermediate Service at 32,000 miles, I found that the air filter had not been replaced at the last garage service (27,800 miles), and also the pollen filter looked as if it needed changing. Total cost of service parts was a bit high (over £55 in Halfords including fuel filter, synthetic oil), and NGK Spark plugs - fitted myself at the next service) but at least I knew that they had all been replaced. Only other problem I found was that the handbrake cable required a thorough clean and greasing a 10 minute job.

Routine services were carried out at 37,000 miles, 43,000 miles and 48,000 miles.

When the MOT came up for renewing in August 2002, I found that the two front tyres were so close to illegality that they were replaced. That cost under £32 each for the pair of Michelins from Cost Co including fitting/balancing/valves - always the cheapest place in the Edinburgh area for Michelins. Kwik Fit wanted almost £58 each. National were the next cheapest at £44 each. The rear tyres were moved to the front and were replaced before the next MOT in 2003. In 2004, at about 48,000 miles, I noticed that suspension had become a little ‘soft’. I managed to buy a complete set of front & rear suspension taken off a 2001 Corsa SXi (claimed to have less than 2000 miles use – which I believe to be true) that had been fitted with lowered/stiffened suspension. THAT was one my better buys from Ebay – costing just £32 including postage & packing. Fitting took me about 3 hours – loadsa blue language – but the car was transformed. It had been sagging slightly on the suspension, but after the work it looked just right. If I had used new parts, it would have cost over £200. I also replaced the front discs and disc pads (costing about £35 from Halfords).
At the 48,000 mile service I replaced the brake cables (one of which had snapped) and the rear brake shoes. The shoes were not worn out, but having stripped the rear brakes and needing to replace the corroded springs, to install the new cables, I took advantage of a special offer on brakes at Halfords (and the total cost of parts came to just £30 or so).

I then decided that it required a new timing belt, so this was fitted by the local garage/motor engineers for a cost of £72 (a bargain). I gave it a last complete service at 53,885 miles and an early MOT was obtained just before sale (when it passed with no failures – in the same way that it had every time before. A new pair of front tyres were fitted (costing now £34 each from CostCo).

All this brings into question the use of main dealer servicing. As long as you keep full receipts and records of routine servicing, making notes on new or old components of the date of replacement, then this should satisfy at least a private sale purchaser.

At almost 8 years old, the under-body was still in good condition, but some seams were starting to show surface rust after 6 years. I killed that rust before the winter and gave it all a good coating of Waxoyl that still looked good before sale. It will certainly well outlast the two Novas that our son owned (see reviews).

Another point. I do not really think that my daughter really appreciates what a skilled father she has (and who has saved her ££££s in motoring costs).

The fuel economy is perhaps slightly disappointing, and not as good as I would have hoped - about 30-35mpg around town and up to 44mpg on a long journey, but it is quite lively. For comparison, our sons Nova 1.2 got 40 to 50 mpg on average. At least with the old 8 valve engine in the Corsa, we were spared the worries about the 16 valve ECOTEC engine cam belt tensioner breaking (which happened with a friend who bought the 1.4 16 valve Corsa a little time before us).

Possibly the best part of the total experience was the price. We paid £6,200 on the road, since we had almost 2,300 GM card points to add to our negotiated discount. I can thoroughly recommend the GM credit card (see my review). We try to channel all our spending through this credit card (avoiding cash unless absolutely essential), and already have redeemed in excess of 2,500 points on a new Astra (review to follow). We have also operated card in Heather's name and recently bought a new Meriva in March 2005.

We also had free insurance for the first year. This was a real boon having then two learner drivers as named drivers and a third under 21 with one year?s driving experience). It was not quite free in that we paid £50 extra for inclusion of five named drivers (the maximum on that policy). I reckon that this first year insurance would have cost well over £1,000 alone (since the car was being run as a third car with expensive young drivers and would not have counted for any no claims discount !).

Thus, we lost about £2,200 in depreciation over 3 years (and we had the free insurance for the first year). All in all, an excellent buy for the family and was then enjoyed by our elder daughter (who paid us the net price offered by the dealer in part-exchange i.e. the part-exchange price less the cash discount offered).

The really good news for our daughter was that Corsas with Power steering are "most sought after" on the used car market and she sold it without a problem for £1900 suing a free advert. After about 2 years' ownership, she would have got about £3,000 so £2,100 depreciation for a little under 5 years ownership (and £1,100 for the past 3 years) is surely VERY good.

So, overall, a car buying and driving experience that can be thoroughly recommended overall at least on cost grpunds, but I am not denying that it could be even better if Vauxhall dealers improved their service departments. In Edinburgh (at least in our experience) they are almost as dire as Fiat and Renault. Provided the new owner takes my advice and uses our local garage/motor engineer for any major work and gets her boyfriend to learn how to carry out routine servicing (I gave her the Haynes Manual!), it should give many years of good service.

Daughter replaced this Corsa with a new Corsa 1.8Sri, with leather upholstery in March 2005. Needlesstosay, she had herself earned £2500 GM points, and managed a large discount – and is LOVING this car. So much better than the 3 cylinder models in the range. But THAT is another story.


© Sidneygee 2001/2002/2005

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