The Vauxhall Corsa that I had came with a 1.2 litre engine that is claimed to give 79 BHP and 81 lb-ft of torque.  At the time I had it the engine was very new and hence very stiff, and so felt very underpowered.  That will improve of course as the engine gets some miles under its bonnet.  Having said that, this car will never be what you would call quick.  You can blame that on the weight of the car - 1070 kg makes for quite a heavy baby!

In spite of the car being quite small in terms of linear dimensions, it is very roomy inside, especially for the front-seat passengers.  I am 6 feet tall and had no trouble with a lack of space.  The seats are very comfortable too, and after driving for an hour or so you don't have any aches or pains.  The boot was a little on the small side, and could barely hold one suit case, but for a small car it was perfectly adequate.  The overall feeling of quality of the car, both inside and out, was very high.

At first, I thought the Corsa had a slightly strange feel to the steering, as though it was lacking a self-centring mechanism, and I had a little trouble holding a straight course on dual carriageways.  But I got used to it after a few miles and the car seemed very assured, going round corners very nicely and still remaining comfortable over pot-holed British roads.  The fuel consumption is claimed to be around 45 MPG on the average, but I only got about 35 MPG - again probably due to the newness of the engine.

So would I buy a Corsa?  Well this particular model is very nicely priced and well under £10,000 for a new model, but I would definitely have to have something with more power.  Perhaps the 1.7-litre diesel engine, which puts out 123 BHP and 207 lb-ft of torque.  Yes I should think that would be a very nice car indeed, with the power to go with the cute looks, nice behaviour on the road and general high-quality feel of the car.