 In
most people's eyes Opel Corsa
is an average car – it looks boring, it drives ordinarily and it never
innovates any new ideas. It does satisfy the needs of most people at
reasonable costs, so GME found no difficulties to sell it. However, as
European market is increasingly challenged by Korean and Japanese
superminis, Corsa has to upgrade its image. To do this, GME asked its
outgoing design chief Martin Smith to submit a striking design. Smith
did not disappoint us. He shaped the new Corsa like a mini version of
his highly acclaimed Astra (the 3-door Corsa is especially like a mini
Astra GTC). This give the new Corsa an image superior to its Japanese
and Korean rivals, lifting it to the same ground as Fiat Grande Punto,
Renault Clio and Peugeot 207.  The cabin
of Corsa used to be grey and boring. Not so in the new car.
Following the trend of European superminis, Opel upgraded its interior
plastics, fit and finish to deliver a quality feel. Moreover, it
introduces many colorful trims for selection, including a piano black
treatment to the center console, which looks really cool (see picture).
 Good
news to the driver: the driving position is finally right, thanks
to the multi-adjustable steering wheel and a wide range of adjustment
to the seat. Passenger space in the 5-door is highly competitive, if
less remarkable in the 3-door because its heavily tapered sides limit
the rear to 2 seats. Luggage space is
good, and there is an optional
bike holder pop out from the rear bumper. The only real problem is
visibility, as both windscreen pillars and C-pillars are thick. But
then you know this will help it to achieve 5-star rating in Euro NCAP
crash test. The new
Corsa shares platform and some 30 percent components with Fiat
Grande Punto – a joint venture made before GM and Fiat divorced. This
help it to lower development and purchasing costs, no wonder it could
be priced as cheap as the Fiat and significantly lower than the French
rivals. This will be a key to its success. Unsurprisingly, Corsa shares
the Punto's MacPherson struts and torsion-beam suspensions, but the
tuning is different. German roads are faster and smoother, so naturally
its suspensions are set stiffer to enhance roadholding. As a result,
the Corsa displays remarkable poise and high speed stability at the
price of low speed ride in urban area and country roads. Wind and road
noises are well insulated from the cabin, but the sometimes harsh ride
means it cannot match Renault Clio for refinement. However, the Corsa
should be more appealing to keen drivers. Its accurate steering, crisp
turn-in and fine body control are exactly what the heavyweight French
cars missed.  It would
have been better if its engines are more punchy. There are 3
petrols on offer (1.0-liter 3-pot 12V 60hp, 1.2-liter 16V 80hp and
1.4-liter 16V 90hp, all equipped with "Twin-Port" variable intake
manifolds), but even the biggest of them are not big enough to cope
with the larger and heavier car. Why not offer a 1.6-liter engine? Like
many other European car makers, Opel offers petrol engines as the
budget choices, and then above them are the more expensive turbo diesel
engines. This consist of Fiat's 1.3 Multijet (Opel calls it 1.3CDTi
instead) in two state of tune (75hp and 90hp), and GME's own 1.7CDTi
(125hp). Although the larger diesel is significantly faster on paper,
in real world it has little advantage over the 90hp 1.3CDTi. The Fiat
unit has wider spread of torque to compensate for the lack of peak
output. It is also more refined and by far more frugal, therefore it is
the pick of the range. Unfortunately, such a sophisticated diesel
engine is inevitably expensive - think of those multi-jet common-rail
injection and VTG turbo. What Opel needs is a good petrol engine, like
Fiat Punto's 1.4 16V.Overall speaking, new Corsa is a fine car that every mini car shoppers should consider. While it is still no innovator, it gets more interesting in many aspects - exterior and interior design, quality finish and handling. It is no more a boring car. |
| The above report was last updated on 12 Sep 2006. All Rights Reserved. |
Small
hot hatches earn big money. If you don't believe, look at the countless
of small hot hatches flooding the market through the years, for
example, Renault 5GT turbo / Clio 16v / Williams / RS, Peugeot 205GTi /
206GTi / 207GT turbo / RC, Volkswagen Polo G40 / GTi, Ford Fiesta XR2i
/ ST… small hot hatches can be big selling because they offer driving
thrills unproportional to their affordable price and running costs.
Moreover, to own a small hot hatch instead of a regular hatchback has
relatively little to sacrifice in comfort or practicality. All these
factors make purchasing a small hot hatch an easy decision.
As hot
hatches are usually bought by young men, they need aggressive looks to
please their buyers. In terms of aggressive look, Corsa OPC has plenty.
Sporty spoilers and skirts, huge intakes, louvered air vents, big alloy
wheels (17-inch standard or 18-inch optional), centrally-located
triangular exhaust pipe and rear diffusers merge with the sharp design
of the standard Corsa body result in the most striking small hot hatch
available. Yes, it might look tall and fat compare with, say, Mini
Cooper S, but don't forget it offers much more space inside, especially
headroom and rear passenger room. The cabin also looks great, thanks to
the piano-black coating on the console, the Audi S3 / RS4 / R8-like
flat-bottomed steering wheel and the, wow, delicious Recaro sports
bucket seats. And the latter is free of charge, unlike those found in
Clio RS.
The high
output enables Corsa OPC to top 140 mph and accelerate from 0-60 mph in
6.8 seconds, more or less matches Clio RS. However, as you would
expect, the main difference lies on the way it delivers such
performance – the turbocharged engine produces its peak torque, 170
lbft, continuously from 1980 rpm to 5800 rpm. This mean in normal
driving the Corsa feels far stronger than Clio RS and its acceleration
response is instantaneous. If more push is necessary for overtaking,
the turbocharger will overboost to 1.3 bar and deliver 196 lbft of
torque for at most 15 seconds. This should enable the Corsa to slip
pass Clio before the latter's high-revving engine started to take up
pace. Also because of strong torque curve, during high-speed cruising
the Opel engine runs at lower rev and therefore produces less noise and
higher level of refinement. 
On the
chassis side, OPC has made extensive modifications: the ride height has
been dropped by 12mm for front axle and 19mm for rear axle; the front
suspensions get firmer springs / dampers and thicker anti-roll bar; the
rear torsion beam has been thickened and becomes 25 percent more
resistant to roll; the steering rack has variable ratio – more
responsive at turn-in and lock while more progressive in between; the
tires become 215/45 VR17 standard or 225/40 VR18 optional; the braking
system has been upgraded to internally ventilated discs measuring 308mm
front and 246mm rear; the ESP has been retuned to intervene less. It
can even be switched off. Finally, the handling was tuned in
Nurburgring ring with the help of Lotus Engineering, an old friend of
GME. Everything looks promising.
Nevertheless,
it is not the last word for driving thrill. The problem of Corsa OPC is
exactly the opposition to Clio RS: it lacks drama. Its engine is
refined to point of bland. With the max power reached at 5850 rpm, you
won't be tempted to rev the engine to listen its full song (by the way,
the turbocharged song isn't so delicious), or play its gearbox
frequently to keep the engine boiling. Even if you deliberately do so,
you will find the turbocharged song and heavy gearshift far from
entertaining. A similar story is found at the steering. Although it is
suitably geared, it delivers little real communication. This is because
there is so much torque loaded on the front rubbers. The electrical
assistance doesn't help too. A Clio RS or 207GT Turbo does better in
this aspect.