Corsa 1.2 Petrol or 1.3 Diesel

hubert_cumberdale

the secret to fuel economy is massive engine and small car

a 1.2 has to carry a corsa around thats probably around 1070kg where as the vectra that got an engine nearly twice the size is only carrying and extra 300kg at a guess

the corsa is gonna use more fuel hauling its heavy sorry bum around where as the diesel corsa will be prepared for this with it great torque

Strider590

Essentially correct, however gearing also plays a part too.... With a town car (Corsa) being geared for stop/start driving and a Vectra being geared for long distance driving.


Corsa D (new bloated corsa) = 1025–1277 kg
Vectra C= 1335–1636 kg

So the fully loaded Corsa weighs nearly as much as the base Vectra.

Perhaps even more scary is the Corsa weighs a lot more than my old Peugeot 306, which was in it's day a "medium sized hatchback".

Call me old fashioned, but I don't think a small hatchback (supermini) should weigh more than 900kg.

bigjl

We had a load of the earlier Corsa's as runabouts at work, they had the old 1.7 engine in them, they where horrible.

We then got some of the new Corsa's (2008) for the same purpose, in three door 1.3 CDTi guise, they don't do many miles but I have driven them into Central London on several occasions and they have a strange kind of revvy feel to them, not that fast probably but they feel nippy, I like them.

I suppose the character isn't surprising considering the engine is from Fiat. I don't know if our's have a DPF fitted, but in 20k over 2 years nothing has broken or fallen off.

One thing about the 1.2 new shape Corsa, as stated it is really slow, no power whatsoever, and when my mate had one as a courtesy car for a week it was worse on fuel than the Rover 214 he used normally. With that in mind and the fact that I have driven the same car in 1.3 CDTi guise the 1.3 CDTi wins hands down, unless of course there was something wrong with the 3 month old courtesy car, but it seemed smooth and quiet, just slow enough to cause anguish when joining traffic flow on a busy roundabout.

The new Corsa is also roomy for the class, almost as much room as an old shape Focus, at least it seemed that way in the 5 door courtesy car. I wouldn't buy a three door, the doors are massive and heavy.

I have looked in these new larger supermini type cars, to replace my Mondeo, especially after driving the wifes Clio (2006 first of the new larger shape), it is really not that much less roomy than my Mondeo, again not far off the first Focus, though the boot is woeful, and it has a 5 star NCAP.

They definately weigh more than older superminis, hence the better safety ratings.

One of my all time favourite cars is still the later Renault 5, my parents had a few, and I owned one for a while, they were really nice, they didn't stand up to high speed accidents that well, though we all got out alive after my one and only accident caused by youthful exuberance in the late '80s.

Might have to go and try to find a nice original 5 GT Turbo Raider at some point in the future.

Exemplar

1.3 is a sweet, revvy little sucker, they also put it in the Astra and it wasnt a huge sales success but the dealership where i worked bought a few and they flew off the pitch.

hubert_cumberdale

just a note that the old 1.7 diesel engine were isuzu engine and were rubbish and eexpensive to fix

i think the new 1.3 diesel engine is fiat or renault so its pretty good but i would go for a punto over a corsa.

i had an old nova with a 2 litre engine in and that was good for 45mpg + it weighed 807kg
the engine is now in my 1978 mini so it will be interesting to see the mpg on that

johnnyroper

the 1.3 cdti is a fiat lump and is fairly reliable in stark contrast to the other fiat bag of !!!!!! vauxhall use (1.9cdti)

i had a 07 combo van as company vehicle for a year or so and to be honest did not realise it was a 1.3 at first it was a lot nippier than the 17dt isuzu combo it replaced fuel economy was also fantastic.
i carry a lot of weight in back yet it still pulled really well.

as for the corsa they are a heavy car but feel quite big and can handle motorway runs surprisingly well i had one as a hire vehicle while my old laguna was in garage waiting parts on back order did about 4k miles in it.
the latest gen corsa's are far better than old ones,the only negative i can think of is they are over priced for a car of its size.

Rolandtheroadie

hubert_cumberdale wrote: »

just a note that the old 1.7 diesel engine were isuzu engine and were rubbish and eexpensive to fix

Mines is a GM 1.7 in a corsa b, always thought the isuzu was the "good" one.

Wig

Find out where and how much your local LPG supply costs.

Then consider an LPG Corsa 1.2 Dualfuel. I got one of those and I do 275miles on £20 / 37 litres LPG

johnnyroper

scotsman4th wrote: »

Mines is a GM 1.7 in a corsa b, always thought the isuzu was the "good" one.

they did not fit the gm 1.7 in corsa only the isuzu lumps in either turbo or normally aspirated form.
and yes the isuzu is the good engine although the 1.3 cdti is better still in my opinion.

Rolandtheroadie

johnnyroper wrote: »

they did not fit the gm 1.7 in corsa only the isuzu lumps in either turbo or normally aspirated form.
and yes the isuzu is the good engine although the 1.3 cdti is better still in my opinion.

You live and learn, for some reason I was convinced it was a GM lump when I was looking into running it on veg oil.