Had the above as a hire car from Enterprise today. Had a fair old drive from Gloucester to near Leeds and back so ordered if for a 05:30 start today. It turned up at 23:00 last night!
Wasn't too chuffed when it turned up, as I'd specifically ordered an Astra/Golf/ Focus sized vehicle (as allowed by my employer) for a bit more comfort and performance for the drive.
Other frustration when I checked the paperwork this morning was that in spite of the form stating that it had a full tank, it was only 3/4 full. Did ring up to complain later today and to be fair, they did acknowledge that they had delivered the wrong group of car and took on board the fuel discrepancy. Free upgrade next time.
Anyway, in terms of the drive, this example had less than 100 miles on it and felt very tight, with graunching front brakes. The gearbox was pretty stiff and reluctant and I suspect that the engine needed a bit more of a workout in order to start loosening up. It certainly got one today, just to attempt to keep up with the traffic. I can't recall the last time I drove something so gutless! Probably fine for nipping around town, but in the outside lane of the motorway, it was bordering on dangerous. I suspect that all of the safety equipment which has been added in recent years, coupled with engines that have to be tuned for good economy and low emissions has resulted in very little grunt. Supposed to be around 85bhp, but my Peugeot 205 diesel from the late '80s, which had around 60bhp never felt this snail like...
It could be coaxed up to a normal motorway speed, but I dreaded somebody pulling out and causing me to have to lose the speed that had been gained. Even dropping from 5th to 4th or even 3rd at lower speeds didn't seem to make much difference to the pace of the car; just the noise level.
Very difficult to drive smoothly given the reluctant gearbox and a strange 'on/off' feel to the throttle. Those indicators take some getting used to too!
Economy according to the computer was 42mpg for the round trip, which I guess is a bit disappointing for a 1.2 small car. Having said that, I guess a steady indicated 70mph might have pushed this up a few points.
Good points were that the driving position and seats were comfortable and the ride wasn't bad. Never driven a car with a heated steering wheel before either!
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When my Panda had 100 miles on the clock it was slow and felt like a tractor, almost 3400 miles later I can keep up with anything in town traffic.
The engine has been completly transformed. I think it is a bit unfair to moan about the performance of the Corsa when its still brand new. Again with the gears my Panda was the same, but the gear change is as smooth as anything now.
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I seem to recall that the subject iof the current shape Corsa with a 1.2 engine has been discussed on here before, and having had one as a courtesy car i can confirm that yes it is far to big and heavy now for this engine. It was reminisent of a MK1 Escort 1.1 i had in the 70's !
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I had the same engine in Corsa B, mine was one of the very first examples, it felt ok in the B at 65bhp, but my Panda is no slower.
I dread to think how bad the 1.0 3 pot must be in the Corsa D.
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A mid spec Corsa D weighs the same as a base spec Cavalier from 20 years ago, and nobody in their right mind would have bought one of those with a 1.2 litre petrol engine. Equally, nobody would have expected a 1.2 Nova to go well with four big blokes in it, but that is effectively what the Corsa's engine is dragging along in excess flab.
The problem is, small cars have got bigger and fatter, and manufacturers are still sticking the same tiny engines in them. In many cases, it simply doesn't work.
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"The problem is, small cars have got bigger and fatter"
You are right there, i recently parked next to an Austin Maxi which in it's day was classed as a medium sized family car and my supermini Peugeot 207 looked like a monster truck compared to it !
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>> A mid spec Corsa D weighs the same as a base spec Cavalier from 20
>> years ago, and nobody in their right mind would have bought one of those with
>> a 1.2 litre petrol engine.
I remember having the loan of a 1.3 Cavalier in the 80's which would have left my then Maxi 1750 standing.
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>> I think it is a bit unfair to moan about the performance of the Corsa when its still brand new.
You obviously don't know anyone that works for hire car companies. The smaller engined cars are loathed by the drivers, and often get thrashed to within an inch of their lives.
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>> I suspect that the engine needed a bit more of a workout in order to start loosening up. It certainly got
>> one today, just to attempt to keep up with the traffic
>> The smaller engined cars are loathed by the drivers, and often get thrashed to within an inch of their lives
Good reasons to avoid buying an ex-hire car! At least if you plan on keeping it for any length of time.
Mr M - What size of car/engine do you normally drive?
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I can relate to that with a Kia Picanto 1.1L
Had it as a courtesy car with 4 miles on the clock.
Ran gutless ad used £15 of fuel in 3 days.
I had the exact same car again 9 months later and it was still gutless but used less fuel.
By then it had 11k miles on the clock !
The Picanto to it's credit was a good car around town but on the motorway was well out of touch and used more fuel than my Rio Diesel over the same route.
The wife has driven a Corsa 1.2L (as a courtesy car) and can confirm that it is gutless and has to be worked hard.
How does the 1.4L Corsa compare, it only has 10 more BHP ?
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The 1.4 is a completely different engine, but the one I drove was a little rocket, but it did have nearly 100bhp.
My 54bhp Panda is fine, I only do town driving in it but its always had power when I need it, the only issue is you have to plan gear changes in advance but that makes the driver a better driver :).
The big difference I have noticed in the last 1000 miles is that everything feels a lot looser, there is a lot more flexibility in the engine too, e.g if I forget to change down to 2nd on a hill it won't just die as the knock sensor kicks in.
For town driving the only benefit extra power would have for me is I could be more lazy, but that would take out some of the fun.
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Dave_TDCi,
The 'Moo Fleet' is an eclectic mix and consists of:-
1. Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4, 6 speed manual. Clearly a fairly big lump to haul around and with a tall 6th gear (35 mph/1,000 rpm), but with c. 300 lbs/ft pf torque at a pretty low engine speed, it picks up quite nicely at motorway speeds and rarely needs dropping down to 5th.
2. VW Beetle 2.0, 5 speed manual. This is the old Golf GTi 8v 115bhp unit. Pretty old tech and I remain baffled as to how VW managed to extract such a low power output from a 2.0 petrol. Having said that, its pretty tractable and virtually impossible to stall. Gearing is really low (5th is something like 20 mph/1,000 rpm), so whilst the torque output is pretty meagre, at motorway speeds, she picks up quite nicely and doesn't feel dead
3. Nissan Figaro 1.0 Turbo, 3 speed auto. First things first, this was the choice of Mrs Moo... Actually, thinking about it, so was the Beetle several years earlier. Nevertheless, whilst the power output is only c. 75 bhp, this makes the Beetle seem high geared! Motorway speed for this is c. 60 mph, as it does sound a little strained much above this. Having said that, if you bury your foot in the carpet at c. 60mph, it does pick up reasoably well and would have shown the Corsa a clean pair of heels. Japanese reliability is alive and well with the Figaro. We've had it 6 years and although we've done less than 30,000 miles in that time, aside from routine servicing, I've replaced the exhaust and the HT leads. Not bad for a twenty year old car and she still started first time in minus 14 degree temperatures over the winter.
I've driven a fair few Corsa sized hire cars and I really can't recall anything so sluggish. A few people have mentioned the same car with the 1.4 engine and whilst I wouldn't say that it's a ball of fire, its a heck of a lot more punchy than the 1.2. I think they also do a 1.0 too, which must be some form of purgatory!
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Lets be fair you just got the wrong car it's no motorway cruiser it's a car ideal for local small mileage runs.
What you should have done was take it back and got the Astra.
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Lucky you didn't get offered a 1.0!!
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We get a fair few of these at work from europcar - everybody hates them.
Colleague got a 1.4 astra last week and said it was just as dire
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We had a Fiesta 'Style +' a few weeks ago when our A3 was in the bodyshop (again...). The handling was sweet enough, but its 1.25 ltre (I think?) petrol engine was gutless too; I agree that 'small' cars have outgrown small normally aspirated petrol engines.
And I say this when our A3 is only a 1.6 petrol, which is not exactly over-endowed with power or torque!! The interior was also cheap as chips, but it is a good looking car I think. A pokier engined version with a more upmarket interior would be a nice car - not noticeably smaller than the A3 inside, other than the boot, either
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I had a go in a Fiesta 1.2-ish the other week. It was nippy enough ( very in fact ) but to be fair it was an Italian hire car...
:-)
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The really sad thing with the Fiesta, is that same 1.25 litre lump in the mk4 and mk5 used to be a lovely, zippy little thing.
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>> The really sad thing with the Fiesta, is that same 1.25 litre lump in the
>> mk4 and mk5 used to be a lovely, zippy little thing.
It felt fine up to about 45ish, but on open roads, and particularly dual carriageways with roundabouts, it was a real chore regaining speed. It had 17k miles on the clock, which if they were all as a courtesy car should have been enough to loosen it up!! Given enough road you could wind it up to a fair old pace though...
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Driving Impressions - Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 16v - RattleandSmoke
