Vauxhall Corsa review

You’ll find a good range of adjustment in the steering wheel and driving seat. Plus, thankfully, the air conditioning is controlled via physical buttons and dials that are within easy reach of the driver, rather than being awkwardly hidden within a touchscreen menu as is the case with some rivals. Higher trim levels also a rare taste of luxury for the small car class; a massaging driver’s seat is available.

Analogue dials come as standard with a 3.5in screen in the middle to show trip information. A digital driver display is only available with the electric Corsa-E.

There’s no problem with the view out of the Corsa; all-round visibility is decent. Bright LED headlights and daytime running lights come as standard, too, with adaptive headlights available on higher trims levels (these allow you to drive on full headlight beam with the car shaping the light output to avoid dazzling other road users – an impressive feature that’s rare in the class). 

One anomaly is that you don’t get any parking sensors or a rear-view camera as standard. And, because of Vauxhall’s limited options list, you need to opt for a relatively high trim level to add them to your Corsa at all.

A 7.0in touchscreen infotainment system comes as standard and incorporates Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. These allow you to use smartphone features, such as sat nav, via the car’s screen, and are particularly handy because the system itself isn’t particularly sharp to respond to touch inputs.

Its menu layout is a bit fiddly, too, but the system has one saving grace; there are physical shortcut buttons and dials to directly control certain infotainment functions. This makes it less distracting to use on the move than the pure-touchscreen systems of some rivals. Elite Nav upwards gets a larger 10.0in touchscreen.

While the design of the interior may be about as bold and daring as a grey suit at a wedding, there’s little problem with the nuts and bolts of it. Poke and prod around the dash and it all seems fairly well screwed together, but it can’t match the overall solidity and polish of the very best in this class. It’s actually outshone by its close cousin, the Peugeot 208.