‘I drove one of UK’s best-selling cars that costs £24k – but wouldn’t buy it’ | UK | News

Driving down the UK motorways, you will almost certainly encounter a Vauxhall Corsa. The iconic hatchback was first launched in the UK back in 1993 and is now one of the most popular vehicles on our roads. It’s so popular, in fact, that the latest SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) figures suggest claim only four other cars have sold more times than it this year.

But does popular mean it is good? Take Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, for example. While it’s set to smash box office records, I reckon the likes of The Prestige (2006) and Tenet (2020) are better.

I recently had the chance to drive the newest Vauxhall Corsa and it seemed to me to encounter the same problem – popular does not mean it is the best.

The Corsa’s popularity

As of the latest SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) figures, the Vauxhall Corsa was in the top five for best selling cars in the UK in 2026 so far with 18,470 registrations so far.

Ahead of it are only the Nissan Qashqai, Jaecoo 7, Kia Sportage, and Ford Puma; all of which I’ve driven to some extent in the last 18 months. The Corsa is unique amongst the top five because it’s the only one which isn’t some sort of SUV – the Puma is very much a small SUV – so it’s fighting for the small car.

Intriguingly, despite its sales figures, the Corsa doesn’t rank in other top tens for small cars such as those published by Auto Express where the best car as of the July 13 list was the Cupra Raval or a list published by Autocar at the start of this year where the Renault 5 won out.

What is it exactly?

The Corsa is a hybrid supermini. Basically, it’s a small car with a small turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine attached to a small hybrid system.

This hybrid system sends around 145BHP of power through the front wheels via an automatic dual clutch gearbox. The OTR (On-The-Road) price of the orange car I had on test for a week was £23,910. The Corsa, which weighs just over 1,100kg, also has five seats and a 309 litre boot.

How did it fare?

Let’s start with the plus points. I’m always quite excited when a small and light car is on test, because it’s nice to be reminded about the nice side of the laws of physics, and that car manufacturers still build cars that are light(ish).

The Corsa, at a mechanical level, is a really good advert for combining a small petrol engine with a small hybrid system. It felt quite punchy and had a lot of pull for a small car when accelerating up to motorway speeds. Furthermore, the car does a lot regeneration, which means you spend most of your time one pedal motoring with the system maximising as much time sending power back into the battery so you’ve got more range. So, despite being a small car, it never felt strained from a powertrain perspective.

The steering also had a great feel. So many cars nowadays have incredibly numb or light steering, leaving you slightly in the dark about what your four wheels are doing. In this sense it was refreshingly communicative. On rougher tarmac, the ride is not unduly hard, helped by the tyres’ higher sidewalls and soft suspension.

On the motorway there’s rather a bit of wind and road noise as you’d expect, but it’s more the former than the latter. There’s the tiniest bit of oscillation from the very top of the car, it’s quite high sided so this is not unexpected; no counter steering required.

I found it was quite crown sensitive too. The crown in the road is used to describe how the road descends away from the centre to pavement. Most roads have a slight crown in them which helps with moving water away from the centre. I found the Corsa was quite sensitive to it, but then so are many other cars.

What’s it like on the inside?

The boot is healthy, generous. Getting into the rear seats was a bit awkward, especially if the person driving you is close to or over six foot. So for entry and exit for rear passengers requires the smallest bit of contortion. However, the headroom is plentiful with no need for the craning of the neck.

Upfront you’ve got the de-rigeur touchscreen with a few buttons on the steering wheel and centre console. Vauxhall clearly here learning from rivals that people don’t want to do everything through a touchscreen. As a result, it’s perfectly useable to drive with crucial controls like the gear selector, air con and music controls in physical form.

Why I wouldn’t buy it and the better car

The fundamental, but unfortunate thing, for modern cars on sale today is that they’re going on sale during a prolonged cost of living crisis. People don’t have as much spending power as they did 10 or more years ago. Furthermore, despite inflation, £20k is and always will be a lot of money.

The fundamental reason I wouldn’t buy the Vauxhall with my own cash is because I know I could get a bigger, more practical nearly-new car. There’s a reason why the Ford Fiesta became one of the most popular used cars in the UK soon after it was replaced with the Puma; it’s a cheap, small, practical car which is sometimes cheap to repair if something goes wrong.

For example, you can pick up a good, used MINI Clubman for less than £20,000. The sweet spot is the Cooper version with the 1.5 litre 3 cylinder engine. That engine is incredibly economical, very torquy and light. Furthermore, the car is an estate so very aerodyamic and it’s practical too.

I had one for five years between 2020 and 2025 and found it to be incredibly reliable too. If the car is new enough it also comes with AppleCarPlay and the majority of things on the car can be changed through use of a physical dial, even though some also come with touchscreens. Furthermore, it handles well and is incredibly comfortable, even over the UK’s rough roads. It’s a better car in all respects.

In isolation the Corsa is an objectively good car, it’s just entered into a difficult car buying slash leasing environment where used cars, especially those with more physical controls, are more attractive buying purchases.

Verdict

The Corsa might be in the SMMT’s top fives, but it’s not in mine. It’s not a bad car, it’s not mediocre, it’s actually quite good. It has a good, stable platform, it’s got a great powertrain. It is manoeuvrable. However, if it was my money I don’t think I would buy it as I think £23k can get you more car on the used car market, and there are better cars in this sector available.

Christopher’s Verdict: 7/10