Vauxhall Corsa gets a 2010 eco facelift

By Tim Pollard

First Official Pictures

19 November 2009 00:01

Blink and you'll miss it – but your accountant won't. The new 2010 model year Vauxhall Corsa has been nipped and tucked, tweaked and polished to produce an impressive average 13% fuel saving across the range.

Five out of the six Corsa engines now produce less than 125g/km and the 2010 Corsa Ecoflex diesel now manages up to 76.3mpg (on the Government's not-especially-representative combined figures).

How have they made the Corsas so much cleaner?

Just good old-fashioned engine tuning, apparently. Most models also come with an eco gearshift indicator to guilt-trip drivers into shifting up at the earliest opportunity.

Vauxhall claims it'll sell more sub-125g/km cars than any other model range in the UK in 2010; all manual gearbox Corsas will qualify for free tax discs from next spring when Britain's new VED rates come into force.

Anything else new on the 2010 Corsa?

It's not just fuel-saving, miser-making tips. The new Corsa has had some chassis mods, too, with revised damper settings, newly bushed anti-roll bars and enhanced steering geometry to sharpen up the mini's responses.

Extra kit is thrown in to 2010 model year Corsas: SE, SXi and SRi gain cruise control and on-board computers, while the SRi trim gets air-con, five-spoke alloys and a VXR-inspired lairy-lite bodykit.

Finally, this is a chance to bring the Corsa into line with the Insignia's more grown-up branding. So trim levels have been tweaked accordingly – Life becomes S, Club has been dropped in favour of Exclusiv (where's the 'e'?!) and Design spec transforms into SE. Top-dog SXi and SRi remain unaffected.

By Tim Pollard