Road Test: Opel Corsa

As one of their bread-and-butter cars right across Europe, Opel have a lot riding on their latest Corsa, which was just recently released in Ireland, writes Brian Byrne. It has traditionally been the starter car for many singles and beginning families, also one popular with driving schools and therefore a choice of first car for many new drivers.

It has been around since 1982 as a model, and variants were sold in many countries as far away as Australia, though never in North America.

So, while needing it to be new, the company has been very careful not to lose the theme of the car it has just replaced, so when I first saw it in the metal at the Paris Motor Show in October, it struck me as quite evolutionary in style. Although all the external sheet-metal has been revised enough for the company to brand it internally as the Corsa E (Opel traditionally use the alphabet to denote generation changes in its products), the new Corsa is very familiar indeed.

The underpinnings are essentially unchanged, as the car uses the same platform and structure as the Corsa D. But it does look bigger.

I've only had a chance to drive it briefly and in 2015 I'll get to give it a more thorough review. But in this first drive encounter, I found a lot of detail that I liked. The new front design with very distinctive lights is smart, the interior dash and instruments design is attractive, functional, and a definite upgrade in perceived quality. In the 5-door version I drove, there's decent headroom for a tall person like me, and I could even fit comfortably in the back. The boot capacity seems to be around the same as before, which would fit in with there being no change in the car's basic architecture. (There was a skinny spare in the review car, but check with your dealer, as Opel Ireland official specifications only show an inflator kit.)

The basic Corsa S comes very well specified, with heated windscreen and hill start assist among a long list of good standard items. The review car was the middle Excite grade, with some peculiar additional goodies in the generally good range. For instance, a heated leather steering wheel and heated seats, but no parking sensors. I'd happily trade the steering wheel heating for those last. And no mirror for the front passenger, which my wife was very quick to notice as being very odd these days. Still, in general, the overall specification is very good.

There are currently three engines available, all of them legacy — 1.2 and 1.4 petrol and a 1.3 diesel. All good motors, but which will show their age when the new 1.0 3-cylinder petrol arrives as an option in the first half of 2015. The engine in the review car was the 90hp 1.4 four, which in its essential form has been around since 1996. But it remains a pleasant unit, and in the latest Corsa is very well soundproofed. Tractable, willing, not designed or expected to be extraordinary.

Corsa has always driven quite well, and the new one is no exception, and the company say they have further tuned the suspension for a comfortable ride. So I enjoyed the experience. A small but significant quibble is the lightness of the newly-programmed steering, which one would probably get used to but is far too fidgety for my taste. It can even be made lighter again, as the car has a 'City' button which harks back to the shared platform the Corsa has with Fiat's Grande Punto.

Overall, this is a derivative of the Corsa line that won't frighten away any traditional users. It's a car for its purpose, to attract new buyers from the conservative side, and to keep the current ones from straying to Ford or the Koreans. It should do fine.

Prices from €14,895. The review car is priced at €15,895 plus charges.