2001 Vauxhall Corsa SXI review from UK and Ireland

Noisy Windscreen Wipers from the start. Now the car is 4 years old, without warning the windscreen wipers stopped working and when I got a mechanic to look at them was told the spindles had seized (common problem apparently)

Rattle from the back quarter drivers side.

Radio went faulty twice causing car to loose all power, radio had to be replaced under warranty to fix the problem. Still have problems with the steering wheel controls, if trying to turn the sound up using them, it jumps onto the CD mode!!

Had problems from the outset with getting the car into first and second gear, finally had this problem resolved by fitting a new gear linkage. Didn't take it in under warranty like I should have, but had a Vauxhall mechanic change it and he told me it is a common fault (this car seems to have a lot of those!)

Has a habit of stalling for no reason when you have just started it up and the service light starts flashing and sometimes stays on! restart the engine and it disappears!

Paintwork doesn't wear well. I have a lot of marks that won't polish out.

Weak shopping handles in the back, broke when only about 6 months old (and they wanted £16 to replace it!)

Left front passenger indicator keeps going, keeps working loose, bulb is fine.

Passenger window seems a bit wobbly when shutting the door if the window is down.

Ran a bit low on oil (no warning light came on and nor did it overheat) but now I have very noisy tapets and have been told it might be the timing chain that is loose, either that or the water pump which I had changed just in case.

When bought, this car seemed very fast for a 1200, but over time it is slowly loosing acceleration and top speed to such an extent that you have to stamp on the peddle to get it to shift (almost like giving it a kick up the bum!)

All this and I have looked after the car believe it or not - it has a full service history and all done at the dealers or at home by a Vauxhall mechanic.

Despite all of the above, it is a very nice car, certainly the best Vauxhall I have ever driven.

It feels heavy, well built (body wise, not mechanically) and for a 1200 engine is very good.

The car handles well round corners, is very stable for such a high car, very little body roll.

My Corsa is now 4 years old and has cost me £250 this month for new tyres, windscreen wipers sorting, and a new water pump, for this reason only, I think it is time to say goodbye to it.

I would buy this car again though especially now as there is a mark II updated version which no doubt will have fixed all the problems.

I will be sad to see the back of this car as I have taken it all over, including abroad, when working fine it is a lovely car to drive and handles brilliantly with reasonable fuel consumption on long journeys.