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[Rock]

Am thinking of buying a car for the missus..

Looking at a 2005 (05) Corsa 1.0 12v 5 Door. She is a new driver so looking for a low insurance group car.

Does anyone have any knowledge of these cars?

[tunnie]

Get the 1.2 16v the 1.0 is just hopeless.... should not make much difference to insurance

[Marks DTM Calib]

1.3 CDTi is the engine of choice with the 1.2 16V a close second......cheap, reliable and woman friendly....

[Rock]

Cheers guys.... Not sure if me mentioning this will do any good. She really likes "The Red One!!"  

[peterjohn36]

I bought my wife a new corsa last Easter so it is just about a year old now, has only done 1245 miles to date, dont laugh is going in for its 1st service with in the next couple of weeks. It is a 1.4ltr  find it a very nippy car, I use it some times if I have to go to the local shops as parking is so easy, as the size of some of the bays are quite tight for the omega to fit in as in the lenght of the car. My wife is really pleased with the car, she only uses it to potter around our roads, so it only does a couple of miles or so before reaching its destinations, has not given any problems to date with this type of driving. I have said I will take it on a run one day to clear the ports on the engine and exhaust, but when it comes to my London run that I do twice a month I chicken out and use the omega (pure bliss) the corsa gives a much firmer ride, the air con works well, insurance is a bit higher than she paid for her 2ltr mondeo, and also the road tax should be cheaper on the 1ltr than the 1.4ltr. The big plus for me is it does not take as long to wash and polish like the omega LOL. mind you it keeps quite clean as it spends most of its hours locked up in our garage. Anyway enjoy your corsa they are nice little cars.

Pete

[Chopsdad]

My wife had a 1.0 Corsa - it was hopeless.  Very underpowered and noisy as a diesel.  After crashing it into a Porshe Cayenne I swapped it for a 1.2 SXI.  Huge difference in comfort, appearance and driveability. 1.3 CDTI is deceptively fast and fun to drive but not recommended for a new driver.

Go for a 1.2 but steer away from the Comfort or Energy models as resale is awful and trim is woeful.  Also, if the 'red one' is bright red it's known as 'dock co.ck red' in the trade and you either love it or hate it and you should get it for a good price.  

[Chopsdad]

Check out the deals on Citroen C1's if you want cheap to run. £40 per year tax, free insurance and after 1 year you can port the 5yr equivalent no claims to your next car.  Just an idea  

[Ronald_McBurger]

Well, as I use a 1.2 16v Corsa for my driving school, I can vouch for it. A cracking little car. Goes VERY well indeed and has (so far) been 100% perfect - dispite it having a full Vauxhall main agent service history.

The 1.0 is a waste of space. 3 cylinder crap.

The 1.3CDti is without doubt the best. But as Mark says, the 1.2 is a very close second.

Clutch is light, gears are slick and the whole car is actually very well built. Mine is just turning 35k now and runs like new.

HTH

[Martin_1962]

The half angine is OK for running about in and makes an interesting noise.

It is eager but slow, gearchange was crap. Very glad though to return it and get mine back (2002)

[Danny]

i had a 1 ltr for my first car, again noisy as a diesel, 0-60 in just over a week

however, EXTREMELY reliable in ALL weather conditions, it NEVER let me down including ice cold morning starts!

but yeah, go for the 1.2sxi i'd say

[Ken T]

When buying a 2nd hand car, check out if the owners have any pets. My wife's corsa, was originally a driving school car, bought by a chap with a couple of dogs, and sold to us. It has been fine, until the weather got warm, and she started getting flee bites It took a couple of good doses of flee powder to get rid I also agree that the 1L engine is a bit challenged. Is it not the Suziki 3 pot?. I drove an Agila for a short while, and it took a long while to wind up.

[Andy B]

....... as it spends most of its hours locked up in our garage. .....
Pete

 :-?  :-? You put your car in your garage? Where do you store all your sh1te then?
    (just ask PWP what my garage is like!   )

[bestseany]

My stepmum has a 1.4 TDCi Fiesta and it drives like a petrol car. Tax is only £50 a year too!

I like the Fiesta 1.25 Zetec's personally. Cheap to insure, reliable and very nippy.

[JesterRT]

Mate has a 1.2SXi and it's not bad as little cars go.  He'd got it after it has been chavved up a bit (metal pedals, dodgy sill trims, gear surround etc).  Only thing to go wrong with it was a gear selector.  He couldn't get it into gears.  3rd disappeared, following by 5th and then reverse.

Took it to Vauxhall who's service desk announced it was a common problem - but I'd take that with a pinch of salt given my previous VX experiences.

I had a quite old 1.0 Corsa for a while - and wouldn't touch one of the 1ltr engine's again.  Absolutely gutless.

[ClarCE]

I hired a 1.0 litre while in Ireland on a work trip - awful, is the only word to describe it, and it was stupidly noisey when you tried to get it going.

Back then me and my ex got rid of our ancient 306 xsi   (although it was french rubbish at the end of the day) and we got a 1.2 16v SXi - lovely car, only problem we had was something on power steering which eventually got fixed on warranty after a lot of arguing..typical vx and not much you can do about that really..