Vauxhall Corsa Life

...looking/asking around and found that Vauxhall offered the deal for people aged over 19. In fact it was great timing as Vauxhall was just embarking on their free insurance deals on Corsa's (a car I actually liked!).

So that was that. I was to buy a Corsa. Or rather my dad was to buy it for me and I'm to pay him back over x number of years to suit my income. (My dads nice like that) :-)

So, enough of the background info. ...
...want to double check your Vauxhall garage has the latest one's in stock as I believe some are still selling off the "old" shape.

Vauxhall are generally offering 3 door hatchbacks from £8360. (Or 5 door versions from £9020).

But it is well worth shopping around for the best deal. My dad seems to enjoy haggling (something I personally HATE doing) so he's always a useful man to have around when you're shopping ... more

Well Sarah_Louise is about to embark on something completely new to herself. Something so new she's starting to feel nervous. Like the feeling you get just before going into an exam. You know that "I'm never going to be able to pass this off, I don't know enough about the subject!!" kind of feeling you get?

You see I have never written a review on a car in my life. In fact I've only owned a car for a couple of months of my life. (Which goes someway to explaining why I've never reviewed one before!)

As those of you who read my "Anything that begins with L..." opinion will be aware that I passed my driving test back on January 7th 2004.

I went a number of weeks (just over a month in fact) before I got my first car though.

I was going to buy my own (second hand) car until my dad suggested buying a new car. At first I looked shocked and enquired how on earth he thought I could afford that. (I'm a student after all!) He had a number of reason's for suggesting this option to me. Namely:

(a) A new car would last me longer than a second hand car that has the potential to have problems with it (and no guarantee....)
(b) Some companies offered free insurance deals for the first year.

It was this latter point that swayed me!

You see as a new driver under the age of 21, insurance for the first year was working out between £980-£1500 ish. So on top of the price I'd be paying for a relatively decent second hand car I'd still be pretty skint just getting the bloomin' thing insured! My dad certainly had a valid point here.

So, it was time to look into which companies offered free insurance for your first year. Dad found that quite a few offered this deal but most seemed to be for drivers over 21 years of age. I'm 20 which meant I'd have to wait till November 8th before I could claim these. There was no way I could wait that long to get a car! However, dad continued looking/asking around and found that Vauxhall offered the deal for people aged over 19. In fact it was great timing as Vauxhall was just embarking on their free insurance deals on Corsa's (a car I actually liked!).

So that was that. I was to buy a Corsa. Or rather my dad was to buy it for me and I'm to pay him back over x number of years to suit my income. (My dads nice like that) :-)

So, enough of the background info. Onto the scary bit. This is the bit when I actually have to talk about the car itself. EEK! I don't know the first thing about engines or anything like that so I may make the worlds worst car reviewer of all time but you can't blame a gal for trying!

My car is a 3 door, Corsa Life 1.0 litre. I didn't really need any bigger engine (or indeed car). So long as it got me from A to B safely and effectively, I really didn't mind.

Corsa's have recently undergone a minor alteration, mainly in the front bumper being restyled and the lights at the back changing slightly in shape and position. You might want to double check your Vauxhall garage has the latest one's in stock as I believe some are still selling off the "old" shape.

Vauxhall are generally offering 3 door hatchbacks from £8360. (Or 5 door versions from £9020).

But it is well worth shopping around for the best deal. My dad seems to enjoy haggling (something I personally HATE doing) so he's always a useful man to have around when you're shopping around for a bargain too! As an example, here's what it cost us (well him technically, so far at least!):

(Barring in mind that my current car (Corsa 1.0l 12v 3 door hatchback) is advertised at £8360.00)

Our deal worked out as follows:

£6200 + VAT with metallic paint thrown in for free.

(I have "Breeze Blue" metallic paint which would normally set you back a further £325 in itself).

Not to mention 1 years free insurance, 3 years free AA and warranty.

All in all, had I bought this at the listed price, spent the extra £325 for the metallic paint (something I wasn't bothered about until they said they'd throw it in for free!) it would have set me back £8685. Add about £1000 to insure me on top of that alongside the AA cover and we're talking nearly £10,000!

So I'm sure you will agree, a VERY decent saving!

And how did my dad manage it? He simply phoned two garages.

He worked them against one another until one of them (incidentally the one just up the road from us!) came up with the best deal (i.e. they phoned a couple of days later to say they had a car on the forecourt waiting for pick-up and it was in metallic blue....)

Who were we to turn that down? The other garage had dropped their price by £2000 ish too by the end but as this garage was up in Lancashire it would have required us to go up there and would have required me to drive back on my own from that area to North Wales on my own as my mum can't drive. The only way around it was either we went on the train (i.e. I took my dad with me so he could direct me on how the hell I was meant to get home!) or persuade the garage to deliver. They did actually offer to deliver it for us but like I say, the £325 worth of free metallic paint swayed us to stick with the local garage. (Vauxhall Slaters in Colwyn Bay if you're interested).

Like I said earlier, I wasn't at all bothered about metallic paint (in fact I'd not even looked at what metallic colours they offered). Ideally I wanted a car in Aruba Blue (can anyone guess what my favourite colour is?) but at least metallic paint will retain the value of the car a little later in life when I decide to sell/part ex it.

Here's a picture of the car I have (from the Vauxhall website):

http://www.vauxhall.com/repositories/images/VehicleLargeColour/Corsa/corsa_life_3dr_breeze-blue_2004.jpg?

My car has the standard "Orleans Charcoal cloth" interior and has the usual dark grey/black plastic interior trimmings.

The Corsa Life has a number of useful key features that come as standard. These include:

~ Anti-lock Braking System (ABS)
~ Remote control central locking
~ Electrically operated front windows
~ CDR 2005 stereo radio/CD player
~ Speed-sensitive electric power steering
~ Door-to door illumination
~ Rear window wash/wipe
~ Body side-protection mouldings
~ Front body-lock seatbelt pretensioners

As any self respecting young person should do, I had to check the sound system was decent! Like the specs above state, a CD player comes as standard in this car (woohoo!).

Another nifty addition to this car is that there are volume switches, switches to change between a CD/radio and a switch to change between radio stations (pre-tuned might I add with all the main BBC stations, the local station(s) and the likes of Classic FM). All these can be found on the steering wheel which not only looks rather swanky but its also extremely useful (and far more safe) compared with having to look around and fiddle around while you're driving.

I won't list ALL the standard features as you can find these for yourself on the website or in the brochures. Instead, I'll just list some of the standard features that aren't always found in some cars:

~ Multi-function display panel showing time, date, audio information and outside air temperature (with ice warning function)
~ Drinks holder and coin holders in centre console
~ Dipping rear-view mirror (which incidentally works REALLY well)
~ Security code protection for audio equipment
~ Hinged luggage compartment cover

Any many other seemingly unimportant features that are actually VERY useful.

Not to mention such things as:

~ Driver's seatbelt force limiter
~ Driver's airbag
~ Emergency Brake Assist (EBA)
~ Side-impact protection beams

And many other safety features that could well save your life.

For those interested in technical details, the car can reach a maximum speed of 96mph (NB. I've not tested this personally!). It takes 15 secs to accelerate from 0-60mph.

Now as this is my first car and I've only ever driven two cars before in my driving lessons (I switched driving schools half way through), I really don't have anything to compare the Corsa too. I don't know about you but I couldn't tell you what the car(s) I learnt to drive in were like to drive. I was too concerned with learning HOW to drive at the time!

However my dad has driven my car. He usually drives much bigger cars. His current car is a VW Passat (couldn't tell you what engine size it is, so lets just say its powerful!) He said he was quite surprised with how "nippy" my car is. Considering 1.0 litre is a mere drop in the ocean in comparison to his cars, he was expecting my car to FEEL slow and unpowerful. I'm assured it doesn't though. It handles well around corners and the likes, accelerates smoothly and is generally a nice drive.

Not only does it feel nice to drive, its also a pleasant car for any passenger. Another thing we all noticed (mum, dad and myself) about my car is that it feels surprisinly roomy inside. As we're used to bigger cars we were expecting it to feel smaller as of course it IS smaller in both length and breadth than my dads' car. But it doesn't *feel* it. You don't feel like you're cramped, leg room is ample for all but the tallest of people and theres plenty of room for luggage in the boot.

It's an economical drive too. I've driven 1320 miles so far and have probably put about £120 in the tank in total. As usual when you get a car from a garage, there was hardly any petrol in at all (just about enough to get me home (5 minute drive) and to the petrol station (a futher 15 minutes). It cost me about £28 to fill it up completely.

So far, I've not had any problems with my car and can't think of any reason to not recommend Corsa's.

I sincerely hope this review is useful for anyone considering buying a Corsa. Like I said from the outset, I don't know a great deal about cars and as this is my first car I don't really have anything to compare it to.

All in all, 10/10 from me!

For more information please see:

www.vauxhall.com

(or call in at your local Vauxhall garage to pick up a brochure).

NB. the ratings above were answered as well as I could so far. Like I say, I can't really compare it to any other cars but they are correct in my mind!

 

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