1993 Vauxhall Corsa B Goes for a Drive

This is one of the earliest right hand drive Corsa Bs but. When new in 1993 the new Opel or Vauxhall Corsa B was a huge leap on from the previous Nova/Corsa A, but how does it hold up 30 years later

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[matty]

Passed my test and learned too drive in this model Vauxhall corsa. It was the 1.5 turbo diesel and my driving instructor was a local bloke called John Vaugne who taught literally every young person in our town. He drank in the towns social club so he knew all the youngsters, he literally taught me, all my mates, my brother, sister and all their friends and all my mates brothers and sisters, so as a result he almost had celebrity status as the instructor who taught every young person in town too drive😂👍🏻 lovely guy and he’s retired now🙂

[db]

Look at the happy little face on this Corsa. Cars used to have smiley eyes and big grins on the grille. These days, cars look like angry Transformer robots. Angry frowny angry evil Decepticons.

[NeilD]

I used to work for a Vauxhall dealer during the 90's, never ever saw one with heated seats, must be a very rare option.

[Scarfacetfs]

I get an occasional lift home from work by a colleague who drives an R reg Corsa B and I love it. These ageing normal cars just ooze their own sort of quirky charm, especially now that they're becoming rarer and rarer to see on the road.

[kieranwhite]

These seemed to be everywhere for absolutely ages and as a result I never paid them much attention. Now that they've vanished, I realise how nice they are!

[retrogamingloftstuff]

Owner here :) Matt - Fantastic to meet you and so glad you were able to drop by to drive. What a great visual feast you put together, I will treasure the 4k footage and you are certainly a master at this craft! A few additional comments to those interested here to fill in a few details and answer some stuff.

Owned the car since February, identified 30 jobs and getting my way through them and more to do!

Heated seats! Yes this is odd and, I believe this was an option on the facelift models - CDX model perhaps? I think this is a replacement fascia. There was an aftermarket immobiliser which I took out as I couldn't reprogram new keys. This ran behind the glovebox and I think someone may have disturbed things and got a new console as they may have hurt the

The date on the multi display is the date of the cars' first registration in April 1993 that I put in as an easter egg but it does forget time often - probably a dry joint on the board. The radio is the original one and not flush currently as I need a mounting bolt to tighten up.

The whine at high revs being a tight cambelt is a good shout. I also think the alternator bearings and the aux belt may also be a culprit and will take a look.

Hubcaps - I do like the Corsa Flair ones that also feature on the Astra F that you can watch on the Hbubnut channel now. For completion sake, will look for an original LS set for special "occasions". I can't get to Festival of the Unexceptional this year but perhaps next year with the correct caps!

Anyway its not the best example but I am tidying up as much as I can mechanically/cosmetically and certainly will look to glue back the fabric to the cards among other things.

Anyway thanks again Matt and good to confirm it truly is 18 seconds to 60mph!

[DoctorVision]

Ah, the nostalgia! My mum owned one of these for 17 years from October 1999-early 2017 - a 1.4 5-door in Atlantis Blue. I spent my entire childhood in this car. It literally took us everywhere: to-and-back from school, holidays, day trips out and it was reliable as hell unless of course my mum left the interior light or the radio on and flattened the battery which happened quite a few times. Otherwise it never once failed to start and my mother, unfortunately, wasn't one to get it serviced very often so how it kept going I'll never know. It used to be quite a sight as we reversed out of the driveway in our aging Corsa to see our next door neighbour's relatively newer Seat Ibiza being tended to by breakdown services. I was sad to see it go, but rust got to it and, inevitably, it needed a lot of welding so she "upgraded" to my late Grandad's Astra F, and has recently acquired an Agila so her relationship with Vauxhalls continues.

[RichieRouge]

The beauty of those 8 valve engines was the torque - so what it didn’t have in horsepower, it made up for spritely pulling power. My first car was a Nova so was well aware of the Corsa B. The heated seats are a very unusual extra! It may be very simple and a ‘cheap’ car but it had substance unlike the over-techy cars now which none of which will last 30 years like this has. In South Africa we got the estate and the saloon as well as the ‘Bakkie’ pickup version! Superb video Matt and so so good to see it.

[benday]

We had a 1998 1.4 Breeze that was quite nippy and ultra reliable for the year we had it (2011). In fact the first car my daughter ever travelled in. Long journeys were noisy but perfectly do-able. I'm amazed about the heated front seats option.

[imnoobbronze]

I have a '94 one with this exact engine, just crossed 250k kms and we won't change it for nothing. My dad's first car still serves the family royally. Pretty reliable as well but now it needs a new rubber ring or a pipe here and there. But that engine while not powerful is extremely fuel efficient (i believe it does around 8L/100kms in traffic) and since it's small i can park it everywhere in Athens who is notorious for the lack of parking. Great car for the city, and they truly don't make them like that anymore

[troygoodacre]

My mum ordered a flair model when they first came out. She had to wait quite a while for it as she wanted it in caribic blue. Withe the turquoise clocks dash knobs and paint splash turquoise and grey seats. It came from the dealer with an opel badge on the front and Vauxhall on the back. I wonder at the time if they were short of grille badges. She had it for three years then gave it to me when she got a new one. We both loved it

[FernandoIjurco]

Here in south America, we even had a pick up version of the Corsa. My dad had a 2001 Corsa Pick up with Isuzu's 1.7 litre diesel engine. It was a wonderful and stilish little pick up

[TheMasterOfNone]

I have a '96 B Corsa 1.4i, 5 door model with heated seats and power mirrors. Around 125k miles on the clock and what a sweet little city car it is :) I really do enjoy driving around with it, it's so swift around the corners and nippy around the block. Surely it's not meant for heavy duty highway driving but that's not what I bought it for. It's extremely fun and efficient as a daily driver around the city and the neighbouring countryside. I love my little Corsa and hopefully we have many years together ahead of us.

[rodhili]

I had 5 of these while working as a driving instructor for BSM. I never had a problem with any of them but until I saw this video I had forgot all about them. They were very good cars for instruction though.

[neilwalsh]

I briefly owned a 97 Corsa Sport and loved it. Sister in law bought a new L-reg 5 door turbo diesel in this colour which her father in law then bought until he scrapped it due to severe corrosion in 2009. Being an early Corsa B it still had the Isuzu engine from the Nova TD. Wearing nearly 180k miles before it met it's maker, it still pulled like a train and drove well.
Corsa B and C IMHO were brilliant cars, lots of space, low maintenance costs, comfy and reliable, sadly not so the D.
Thanks Matt for bringing some happy memories back with a lovely standard low mileage time warp.

[pi]

I remember when these Corsas were out in the UK. They looked so modern and futuristic! So pleasing to the eye compared to a lot of other cars in it’s class. I so wanted one but couldn’t afford it at the time.

[GentilsGarage]

Hideo Kodama, being Japanese, took inspiration on a design style called bio design, introduced by Japanese car manufacturers in the early 90’s. It set the design for the whole of the 90’s. I very much like this era to be fair.
The Corsa B look much more mordern compared to other cars of the same segment.
Only criticism Opel had at the time (according to what I remember reading nearly 30 years?! Ago) was that old 1.2 petrol, only slightly revised from the old Corsa A (before the Edrive was introduced). However, in 97, they introduced the innovative 3 cyl 1l and that’s a normal thing 25 later, albeit turbo charged.
Great review once again! Oh, and I can’t resist a burgundy car… rare colour these days!

[DJGamesHD]

I love your indepth reviews you cover all the details. This example of the Corsa B is absolutely sublime its so rare to find one of these in this condition! Well done to the owner for keeping this way .

[mpersad]

I love it when you review these cars that we all grew up with but that you just don't see very often these days. Such a genuinely pretty little car. Great vid!

[robertofalero]

Very proud that this icon was made in my country, Spain!!
A little point, it has a adjustable rear seat belts too