USED REVIEW: Vauxhall Corsa-e - is Vauxhall’s bargain baby worthy of your cash? | Electrifying

#corsa #usedcars #evs

The Corsa is one of the best-selling cars in Britain, and has been at the sharp end of new car sales for decades. A fully electric version was launched in 2021 and has been one of the UK’s best-selling battery electric cars thanks to low monthly prices, plentiful supply and frequent Vauxhall deals.

With increasing numbers filtering onto the used market, is now the right time to pick up a used electric Corsa? The recent fall in the value of used electric cars (triggered by an increase in supply of new cars) means that the Corsa looks great value. With prices starting at well under £15,000 buyers can make a £15k+ saving over new and still be covered by the original warranty.

Join Nicki as looks closely at the Corsa as a used buy. Is the Corsa-e a great buy or are there alternatives that are better deserving of your budget? Have you got one? If so, let us know how you’re finding it in the comments below - we always love to hear from you.

——————————————————————————————-

Our reviews are written by some of the most experienced reviewers in the business and will even help you find the perfect new or used car.

[decimal]

Looking forward to more videos about the used EV market. Would be good to see detailed information about battery health on these cars in addition to the usual cosmetic stuff. 👍

[tSp]

Just bought an Elite Nav Premium <20k miles for £11500. My thoughts so far: I love it! I just drove it 80 miles in sport mode along fast bendy roads through countryside, mountains, motorway and city, and it was fun all the way. Started with 88%, ended with about 36%. Considering I was effectively launching it every time a speed limit ended, I think that's not bad going. It actually made me a little happy about the 20 limits, because of the fun of leaving them. It is superb at overtaking those people who think that the national speed limit is 37 mph, without risking anyone's safety. That immediate squirt of speed means you can easily get around them and back in lane before the next corner, even if they speed up (they always seem to for some reason).

Comapred to my 185 BHP mapped turbo diesel FIAT Bravo that is also 150 kg lighter, it compares very favourably. It's not as powerful and it's heavier, but up to 50 mph you'd never know. When you put your foot down it goes. The 0-62 is a little misleading as it's 8.2 seconds. 0-60 is 7.6, but up to 50 it is defintely quicker than most cars on the road, except Teslas and sports cars. Going from 60-70 it is perfectly fine, but a little slower than the FIAT. Still perfectly happy getting past people on the motorway/

I thoguht I would be put off by the interior. In person, I'm not. It looks fine. It's not amazing but it's not at all ugly and everything's accssible, and I am SO gflad the air con controls are not in a touch screen menu.

Similarly, I thought the 10 in display with the black border was stupid. It is, but I stopped noticing it about 30 seconds after getting into the car. Also the driver's display looked too small and didn't fill the whole binnacle shape in photos. It's bigger than it looks, it's fine. It is stupid that it won't tell you battery percentage, but jsut remember each one of the 8 blocks it shows you for charge is 12.5% and it's pretty easy to work out on the fly.

Rear space? I don't care. No one's getting in there. Boot's fine. I like hatchbacks; I hate crossovers. I know that's unusual. Nice and short for easy parking but not so dinky that it starts looking 'cute'.

The Elite Nav spec has the Intellilux headlights. I like them a lot. I basically do not have to touch the headlight stalk. No one's flashed me yet, which means no one's been dazzled by the really quite bright headlights, because it's masked them out. I always hated super-white LED headlights on the road but these seem to be pretty considerate of other drivers. I met another corsa coming the other way and didn't find its lights too bright. I DID have a bit of a moment with the headlights. they didn't adjust to a dark country lane quick enough, so I pushed them forward for high beam, which was super bright, and I COULDN'T TURN THEM OFF! Turns out you have to push them forward for off too, not pull back like a normal car. I blinded a car and a lorry and had to pull over and point into the hedge to prevent burning any more retinas until I worked out how to turn them back to auto.

Ditto wipers. You put them on auto and they do their own thing.


The panoramic reversing cam is also a really handy feature, especially the birds-eye view that remembers where you've been and can tell you easily whern you're within the lines of a parking space. Very handy for backing up to the charger.

On charging, this is my first EV and I thought it would be more of a problem. It's not. I always drove my diesel with <50% of a tank which gave similar range to this since it was a semi-sporty one, and the £50 a week I was spending on fuel was starting to hurt. I don't have to baby this car to make it go far. Charging is quick enough that you can barely notice it. On home charging and a good tariff (say Octopus intelligent go) with a charge point you could potentially get a full battery for £4.75, which is absurdly cheap. I've been using public chargers so far and it's working out slightly cheaper than diesel, but not much. I jst got a 3-pin for home charging, which will reduce this massively.

IMO this car is prettier than most on the road, especially in the metallic hot red (which I have) or the white variants. I had a look at the other colours in person and the only ones I wouldn't have are the silver ( I hate silver cars for some reason) and the orange. Navy blue is the next best colour. No idea why they discontinued that. It's subjective, but I think it looks far better than the 208, which has a kind of juvenile look with the big wheel arches and babyish lines. It also looks much better than the facelift IMO. To me it looks like someone at Audi was having a really good day. I have no idea why people say it's boring looking, but if you like the looks you're in luck, because it makes it a grand or two cheaper than the 208, which is the same car with a puppy face.

[mikadavies]

Amazing to think, it used to be a Zoe or a Leaf.... Now there is a good number of other brands that are now hitting 3 years old... and they have lost 50% to 60% of their showroom prices. I think they are bargains!

[ajward]

Two minor niggles:
1. It isn't easy to reverse park unless you have the reversing camera! Both my wife and I struggle to back it down the drive to charge - and we both have more than 30 years driving cars. Something about the lines makes it awkward to reverse accurately.
2. Indicated range is inaccurate and way too high - and suffers greatly in the cold. In the summer, best range is about 170 miles. In the winter, closer to 120.
Other than that, good, reliable EV. No battery degradation after 40, 000 miles and 4 years.

[sebastiansandvik]

Incredible how quickly used car prices go down in the UK. Here in Finland a used Corsa-e with 50 000km from 2020 would be about 23 000 euro. That's 50% more than in the UK, even though the price was the same as new.

[Peoplestariff]

brilliant review :) I don’t want too many people to know about this bargain before I buy one lol

[thelaserhive]

Bargain. Actually I think that the used EV market has now ‘normalised’. People recognise that the new prices of European EVs were artificially high and the second hand market now has enough for them to be at the right level. It means that the less wealthy now truly have access to sensibly priced cars - and that’s a great thing. I jumped in with a used E-Golf last month and I’m loving it. So much choice now!

[brianiswrong]

As people have said,
The current state of the battery life should be a mandatory display on every ev.
Then as a used buyer we would have some idea of what we are buying and its current battery life condition.

[hellcat]

I wish this had been, and still wish it was available over here, across the pond. Those prices and that millage make them exactly the car that I've been demanding for over the last 5 years.

[Madonsteamrailways]

I’ve been driving an electric car for three years!! My car is a little Renault Zoe that I leased three years ago. My next car will be a small camper. It’s a Vauxhall Combo Life Electric with the Wheelhome Vikenze III camper conversion in it. The reason for that is that I’ve always wanted a camper and this is my chance!!

[chasf]

Great value but at 3 years old would be out of the manufacturer's warranty. If Stellantis want to boost end of lease residuals then they really need to offer at least a 5 year warranty on the whole car.

[lew]

The car is okay, it’s not amazing in any area, but the biggest problem is the dealer network, after owning a couple of Corsa-e’s it was the dealer that was the biggest let down, certainly in the part of the uk I live. Also Stellantis are closing lots of dealers so the choice of dealers is becoming limited on choice. So make sure you do your homework on local dealer reviews before committing to a purchase.

[TheOnlyJizz]

Battery state of health is the single most important piece of information used buyers want to know if they're going to be confident of switching to an EV.

[nickgrew]

We bought a 21 plate Corsa e in September 2023. It broke down 10 days later on the M3. Still not fixed. Apparently it needs a whole new main Battery and that's waiting to be manufactured some where in France. From chatting to the garage this is not an isolated problem. You have been warned!

[gordonmackenzie]

I see You’ve hit 100k 😀 congratulations 🥳

[MrDAVIDATKIN]

Just bought a brand new Corsa E for under £20k. Has to be the EV bargain of the year

[danielrichards]

Rather than massively depreciated cars they’re at the price they should be as they’re way over priced brand new

[tracksevenuk]

I would strongly recommend avoiding this car. We have a 2020 plate and have owned it for about 14 months, it’s been in the garage 3 times with major faults and we are potentially facing a bill of nearly £4000 to fix it.

Vauxhall sell these cars but have no way of fixing them properly. Stay clear!

[royobanank]

It's taken the price down to what a petrol 3 year old Corsa would be at that trim level, so it's a more realistic price. It's a big hit if your selling privately though.

[patrickh]

What’s happening with the Renault 5e that appeared on YouTube about 2 years ago..? Whilst we on the subject of French cars… 🤔