Corsa 1.0 litre 3 cylnders good or bad

Diesel44

Hi all
I would appreciate views on a 1.0 litre Corsa around the year 99/00/01.
It's for my son, who has just passed his test.
We are looking at 1.0 litre and 1.2 litre Corsa's, what puts me off is that the 1.0 litre's are 3 cylnders.
I would not get a high milage 1.0 litre, but are they ok at around the 50,000 miles mark.
Many thanks.

Older_but_not_wiser_2

My wife had a 1.0 corsa, which we got rid of about 18 months ago.
Only had 48,000 on the clock, but it was like a bag of bolts, ate clutch cables for breakfast (3 in the 18 months we had it), and had a good appetite for sensors too.

I wouldn't have another one, but that's just my opinion.

She now has a 56 plate Kia Picanto 1.0 - not a problem in sight so far (fingers crossed), and sailed through it's MOT.

jaydeeuk1

Someone I knew had the 1.0l. Loved being thrashed. Had no power steering mind. Never had a problem in the 3 years he had it despite constant high rev cold starts and 90mph everywhere.

mcjordi

the one i had was a steamin pile of !!!!!

ate clutch, egr valves, timing chain rattled like a biatch, dodgy coil pack, headgasket went.. this is not thrashing it either was normal driving

get the 1.2 its a better engine than the 1.0

rev_henry

I've shared one with my mother for the past year (I'm 18), of the same vintage to the one you're suggesting OP. Nothing wrong with the car whatsoever, they're great (although ours has power steering) Ours is a 99T and only done 16k miles from new! Considering we bought it Oct 08 and its now done almost 40k, I can safely say it copes fine with high mileages. Not needed much doing that isn't routing maintenance really. Had bits of the exhaust replaced and recently 2 new tyres (which are cheap btw). Also we still get it serviced at the main dealer its been serviced at since new, mainly because they're cheaper than anywhere else for some reason.

However it has no power whatsoever (not such a bad thing for a new young driver), overtaking manoevres require expert planning (on single carriageways) and it takes ages to get to 70, but once its there its happy all day. Also very economical. I'm only stopping driving it because I've saved up for my own car.

When you're looking, you will see a lot of 'merit' models. These are VERY basic. No airbags or PAS, and distiguishable by their non colour coded bumpers and mirrors. Try and go for a club or above, which means you get PAS and a driver airbag, putting it into insurance group 1 instead of 2 for the merit. The 'top' spec you can get with the 1.0 is the GLS I believe, which adds electric windows and mirrors. ABS isn't standard on any, though you may find one with it as a factory option if you're lucky.

harveybobbles

Make sure they have had the timing chain recall done as it can ruin the oil pump...

and dont buy one with more than 40,000 on...

Moggyman

just a word of caution regarding the 1.2 corsa, I recall an article in Car Mechanics magazine a couple of months back relating to snapped camshafts although i think this may have been on the 2002 onwards models rather than the earlier ones but anyway it appears that the camshaft carrier bolts were found to be loose on the cars affected so if you get one could well be worth getting them checked at the earliest opportunity

hope this is of use to you.

Lum

It's worth noting that Corsas, Saxos etc. are actually quite expensive to insure for youngsters these days because of their popularity in the modified car scene and the resultant crashes they have street racing. I'm too old to have first hand experience any more, but on another car forum I'm on, 17yr olds are reporting getting cheaper insurance on a 1.8 Mondeo, and such a car is likely built to last a lot longer and was probably a repmobile previously and thus more likely to be maintained properly.

rev_henry

Lum wrote: »

It's worth noting that Corsas, Saxos etc. are actually quite expensive to insure for youngsters these days because of their popularity in the modified car scene and the resultant crashes they have street racing. I'm too old to have first hand experience any more, but on another car forum I'm on, 17yr olds are reporting getting cheaper insurance on a 1.8 Mondeo, and such a car is likely built to last a lot longer and was probably a repmobile previously and thus more likely to be maintained properly.

Agreed. Insurance groups aren't a good indication of actual premiums anymore. I'm 18 and about to insure my group 7 Hyundai Accent 1.3 (83bhp, 5 doors, so a fair bit bigger than the corsa) for I think less than a corsa would be, so you should always get actual quotes rather than just looking at insurance groups.

michaelvintner

just looked in the handbook for my Girlfriends 1.2 Corsa. it has a whopping 59 BHP. The 1 litre has a mega 44 BHP. With that kind of power you would have to get out and push it over speed bumps.

DaveF327

I drove two of those horrible 3 cylinder [STRIKE]lawnmowers[/STRIKE] cars back in '98/'99, both brand new. The first one had a sticking accelerator and had to go back to the dealer. Then the exhaust came apart within months from new, almost gassing me in the process. The second car wasn't much better. It was terribly underpowered and sounded like a moped stuck in 1st gear.

Better get a 4 cylinder one. Those experiences put me off Vauxhall cars for life.