Faults:

The Cam belt snapped at 46,000mls and I had to have the engine rebuilt which cost £1400!!

The car spent almost as much time being repaired from further expensive mechanical problems as it did on the road.

Rear shock absorbers packed in causing the rear of the car to 'bottom out' over speed bumps and when carrying passengers or luggage.

Back box vibrated wildly when in reverse and at speed. Rubber mounts were replaced along with spring clips, but the problem didn't go away.

Gears would 'grate' between 1st and 2nd when accelerating hard.

Factory fitted alarm packed in.

I wrote it off in the end.

General Comments:

Despite all the endless problems I had with this car, I couldn't help loving this car.

Very powerful little car, would put many larger cars to shame!! 0-60 was around 8 seconds when driving alone, eating big 2litre cars for breakfast!

Never failed to start in the morning, but reliability was poor because of all the things that went wrong with it.

Handling was excellent due to wider 185 tires and stiff sporty suspension (Standard).

Very confident and easy to drive, but dreadful in the wet! Power steering was vague and not as precise as it needed to be.

Easily modified.

Good looking, especially due to the sports package.

Well equipped including power steering, elec windows and mirrors, air con, central locking etc...

Sports seat (standard) were very comfortable and supportive.

This is a very bad example of a fantastic car! Make sure you have full service history and that the cam belt has been done before you buy.

Faults:

The headlamp bulbs have blown on separate occasions, along with the tail light and the fog lights.

The battery has run out on at least three occasions and every time, I only had the interior light on for about 10 minutes.

The car's ECU was blown as the coloured leads from the battery were connected the wrong way round and when I tried to jump start the car after the battery had gone, it blew the ECU.

The seats stain extremely easily and the car gets grubby and dusty easily.

General Comments:

My Corsa was a present for my 17th birthday and the car that I learned to drive in. I passed my test first time, and as I was the only member of my class to have passed my test, I was regularly running them backwards and forwards long distances.

It wasn't very long before things started to go wrong with the car. At about 20,000 miles, the headlamps needed changing and my car key became bent very easily, so I found it difficult to open my boot.

Then the windscreen wipers became damaged due to snow on my windscreen and this resulted in one of them flying off whilst I was driving at high speed in the rain.

I found that the car scratches extremely easily, with many noticeable stone chips on my doors.

I live in quite a bad area and recently there has been quite a bit of vandalism done to my car, which I cannot blame on the car itself. It just is quite expensive to get fixed when I contacted my local Vauxhall dealer. The aerial has been stolen, the Vauxhall badge on the boot has been snapped off and the car has been scratched with a key from the front wheel to the boot on the passenger side. When I asked how much it would be to get the scratches repaired, I was quoted nearly £1000.

The car handles quite well, although just recently as I was driving, the car started to jump and shudder when I changed gear, as though I was running out of petrol (even though I had almost half a tank) and whilst driving at 60 mph yesterday, it shuddered again and the Engine Electronic Management light came on for about a minute and then went off.

So although, to begin with my little car was a dream, I was soon disappointed with things actually going wrong with the car... I wanted to care for it so much, but it is so disheartening to see things constantly going wrong with your little pride and joy.