This is a car that gives me lot's of memory's. Back in 1993 my grandad asked the local Opel dealer to give him a call when the first Corsa B would arrive. So when he got the call he grabbed 10 year old me, we jumped in his Corsa A and drove off to the dealer. When we arrived they just started cleaning the car to put it in the showroom. It was a steel gray Corsa B 1.2 Swing 5 doors. We had a short look and the first thing my grandad did was taking a stack of money out of his pocket and said to the dealer: I want this one, when can i have it 😁 A small week later he could pick it up, so he was one of the first in Belgium to own a Corsa B.
I always liked this model. Here in New Zealand, they were badged as a Holden Barina. The were way way waaaay more luxurious than your Corsa because they had a glove box lid. Fancy
In 2010 I bought my daughter a Corsa B 'Breezer' edition for her first car. It cost £1000 and we sold it 2 years later for £1000. Great little car without all the fancy rubbish that goes wrong in modern cars.
These were sold in Australia as the Holden Barina. The base model was known as the Swing, then I think the next model up was the CD, maybe? There was a GSI version, and also a cabrio version as well, which, AFAIK, was modified here in Australia.
@HubNut that's really cool! Holden was trying to get the buying public to believe that these were a competitor to the VW Golf Cabrio. Not many people were convinced though, especially considering the 1.4 litre that powered those cars was lethargic at best. I haven't seen one on the road for many years now, but I imagine there's one or two stashed away here and there.
Funny story about Chevy and the spark to be precise If you lower a Mk1 Fabia vrs like me then the original drop links no longer fit and instead you are required to use Chevy spark drop links as they have the same mounting bracket’s but slightly shorter
Back in 2013, when I was living in Spain, I too made a long roadtrip in a borrowed Corsa B (but an Opel, naturally). Me and my then wife borrowed it from a friend of ours in Girona to go via the Cote Azur down to the outskirts of Rome, where the would-be boy-friend of our little Italian Greyhound girl lived. The journey was long and quite tiresome, but one of those I will never forget - the road was absolutely breathtaking all the way! The doggy boy-friend, though very eager, could not do his part of the deal and there were no puppies made... The Corsa on the other hand was the perfect car for the small Italian town we visited - any larger and it would have been impossible to navigate the streets or find a parkingspot. - I still dream of taking a trip on the same road again - but maybe not in a Corsa B the next time. 😅
My mum had one of these for years. Hers had the 1.5D engine so it was very slow but very economical. It was eventually scrapped due to corrosion and the last time we saw it it was being used by the local fire station to practice cutting people out of cars!
Chalk up another "I passed my test in a Corsa B" - on 30th January 1997. It was the third Corsa B I'd driven at that point - one for an initial assessment, and my instructor changed his part-way through my lessons - also, we had a family friend who let me practice in his MkIII Astra (higher spec than last year's FOTU winner, mind), and my first car was a pov-spec Nova. So by the end of March it'd only been six months since I first sat behind the wheel... and I'd driven five different Vauxhalls. My brother got a raw deal three years later. He passed his test in a Metro. No, I'm not going to call it a Rover 100. It's a Metro and it'll always be a Metro.
I remember also taking my driving lessons in one of these back in the late 90s. BSM use to upgrade their cars every six months at the time. My instructor one day turned up with the upgraded Corsa, which had the air bag, power steering and a bit more bhp being a 1.4. We still didn't get ABS on it, suppose you couldn't have everything. Now drive a 16 plate Corsa sting 1.2 and being rather base you still don't get a light in the boot!
I would like to see you rag that round some of your favourite Welsh roads, I am sure it would live up to "Power, less is more". Miss Hubnut clearly comes from fine heritage.
Actually no, the Corsa B is the car with the best cupholders I have ever driven. They're exactly sized so the standard "big" paper cup of McDonald's and Burger King fits so snuggly in them, you can go any desired speed and not spill a drop. They only come with the glovebox, as they're in the glovebox lid. Actually (at least here in Germany) there were really high spec models of these. Mine had electric windows, leather seats (heated too) an electric sunroof, alloy wheels, a stereo with a CD changer and metallic paint plus a revvy (if not too strong) 1.2 16V engine. It even handled well, as it was equipped with gas shocks.
Sold in Australia as the Holden Barina. A popular car. My old boss had one, we nick named it the "golf cart" as it always had a set of golf clubs in the back. I think his was a 1.5L. a fun car car to drive just not exceptionally quick.
Nostalgia understood, Ian. I took driving lessons and passed my test, first time, in a Renault 5 TL in 1981, and have never had the chance to drive one since then.
I had one of these, but with a Courtney Sport tuned C20LET Calibra turbo engine and F28 6 speed gearbox. It was an absolute beast and could beat most things to 100mph, it actually handled the power very well for a car that was never meant to have that engine in it. Great 90's sleeper fun!
Passed my test in a Corsa B in 1997 and it was also an R reg. Red, iirc. Lovely and calming driving instructor, spent much of my test blocked in by a refuse lorry that had got stuck down a narrow lane
Noice. 👍 Very suitable steed for FOTU. We hired a Cavalier in UK in 1995. I really enjoyed driving it. Lovely 5 speed change. BTW. Ads have appeared mid way through your videos now. Been like that for a while. One group of 2 ads in this one. I guess you changed your settings but just letting you know in case RUclips has snuck them in without your knowledge.
We also owned a R reg white Corsa Merit 1.2 8v in 5 door guise. I remember the engine being fairly torquey. It would quite happily pull along at 30 MPH in top gear. I passed my test in a 1.4 8v ls Corsa.
Around 2000 I had an internship at a Opel dealer and these were around a lot. Testdrove pretty much all variants but never saw a poverty spec quite like this. Guess that was limited to some markets. Always kept a soft spot for them.
Love the Corsa B. From the owner of the blue one who was at your social earlier in the year and whose son passed his test 2 weeks ago and is currently out cruising the mean streets of Berkshire in it.
I had one of these! Exactly the same - colour, spec, everything; although here in Australia it was the Holden Barina. Great ride quality and very frugal fuel consumption (650-700 km on a tank). It even had the blanking plate on the boot light and the worn out gear lever “scrotum” (we also later had a Holden/Vauxhall Astra with the same problem (feature?). Those little vents on the interior door handle actually hid tiny tweeters, which I discovered when I upgraded the audio. I also installed a glovebox door I found at the scrapyard! A lovely little trip down memory lane, thank you!
Amazing to see a Corsa that made it through the "max power" period completely unmolested! My mate had a black Corsa of the same period but I dont think I ever heard the engine over the cherry bomb exhaust and twin 12" subwoofers in the boot!! Great times!
Ah lovely, I bought a brand new 5 door in 1994 in glorious 'Rainbow Blue' (PURPLE!). IIRC I don't think it had intermittent wipe which at the time, I put down to it being built in Spain 😂
I had a ‘94 diesel van (if you can call it that!) about a decade ago. Was a total lifeline at the time enabling me to start a business. £350. Ran amazingly well. 😊
I'd passed mine four years previously in a rebadged Suzuki Cultus right before they'd started the Geo label here in the US. until last November, it was the smallest thing I'd ever driven.
I was behind and next to you all day at FOTU. My dad's wife had one when we first met after my parents divorce and hers was a 1.0 3 cylinder and It just wouldn't die. That car went over 220k miles before it died of rats eating the wiring after it was sat for a while. It was a great little car!
My now wife had a Nova when we first me, I christened it 'nasty' as my feet would catch on the lower steering column on the floor as I drove. But later on we had a mk1 Tigra 1.4 16 valve, what an absolute hoot to drive, stuck to the road like glue, bright red and just brilliant. One of many Vauxhall cars for us. Great run down of pure original cars. Great camera work too from Mrs Hubnut 👍👍👍👍
The 5 door ones also had different rear lights and possibly a smaller rear wiper though I would have to certainly bow to the wiper oracle that is yourself for expertise in this subject.
Its semi independent rear suspension which allowed a slightly lower boot floor pan.Thats the reason for the ability to have the full size steel or alloy spare wheel.
This takes me back aswell Ian. I actually learned and passed my test in 1998 in a brand new "R" reg corsa exactly like this in white but had the 1.4 engine as my instructor had just got it from the dealer 2 days prior. Also i started and had my first lesson on my 17th birthday 😊😊
Had the non-turbo diesels as pool cars at work. Had a few heart stopping moments when I had forgotten that fast pulling away isn't a thing when you have no turbo! Went to the moon and back on a tank of diesel though.
Absolutely perfect and poverty White as well. We used to have a 1992 Peugeot 106 1.1 with a 4 speed and it was grand on a long run. Luckily for passengers my Wife and I are 5 feet and 5 feet 4 inches respectively. Boot? Yes it had one.
One of a long series of cars badged as a Holden Barina in Australia. The Suzuki Swift based first ones established a good reputation fir the car. The rep drifted down just a bit with the Corsa based ones but took a massive dive from the Daewoo based cars. The curse of sourcing cars from Daewoo being a very large part of the reason Holden collapsed. Not retaining customers in the growing market segments that the Daewoo sourced cars were to represent Holden in.
Oh my, I actually guessed it! And this is pretty much the same spec and colour as my dad's P-reg 5-door one, even down to the radio-only tunes!!! And yes, those are the wrong hubcaps, if I recall they were just little black plastic jobs that fit in the wheel centre... That one ended up mostly being the stepmother's car, as my dad was usually sporting his bangernomics cars that were less than reliable sometimes, and as a young passenger in the rear, I found the seats to be rather hard, oh and the horn was as weak as the current PM, even sat right behind me once, the stepmother tooting away to get my attention at the bus stop on my way to school, it sounded like it was two streets away!! P515 YJR, dropped off the DVLA's system now (though shows up in their MOT lookup, oddly), but it was "an car", peppered with rust spots owing to being pelted by the gritters in winter, last saw it being traded in for a Hyundai Lantra (no Elantra!) estate that had a starter motor that was more a lottery some days... :P
Usually when they show up on the MOT history and nothing else they've been scrapped. Last keeper change in 2002. No MOT history so it's had no MOTs since 2006. I'd assume scrapped. Doubt it's on a private plate because the website where I checked usually shows the new plate but nothing at all. Up until a few years ago cars were often scrapped yet weren't recorded as such.
@@SuperFIFTHGEAR Oh I'm positive it's scrap, it used to be on the enquiry tool as "Untaxed" and "MOT Due" for a long time, and now it's just not there, so they probably had a data purge at DVLA HQ at somepoint, the car probably ended on a back-lot after it was traded in for the lantra cos it wasn't all that great condition-wise (needed a repaint from the rust spots everywhere from gritter damage) so probably just used, abused and binned as they were back then...
My grandmother went from a Volvo 940 estate to one of these, the automatic versions. Was always fun seeing her thrash the little Vauxhall at every traffic light trying to imitate the more powerful Volvo and never quite achieving it. She had it for 7 years and apart from an oil change I don’t believe she ever needed to do anything else on it.
This was the 1997 facelift mk1 Corsa (the mk2 emerging in 2000). And your right the 1.0 3cyl 12v petrol was added at this time-not being part of the original mk1 range. And yes they messed around with the 1.4 petrol as well. I think 2 diesels were available? A big old 1.7 and a smaller but more modern 1.5tdi…..but I maybe wrong!
Drove the length & breadth of the country in an old Nova & then had a Cavalier Sri for years which I adored but then my love for Vauxhall vanished till the Insignia tourer was born, never owned one but one day.
Hi hubnut, love the videos, i also have fond memories of this car, back in 2009 when i was 18 my best mate had one of these also in white, i had a bmw e36, anyway we went on holiday with our girlfriends to my grandparents static caravan on the norfolk coast. One day we went to the supermarket about 5 miles down the road 5 of us crammed in this corsa, i was in the front and me and my mate were chatting and he didnt realise that the cars in front had slowed rather quickly we were only doing about 25mph at the time but i said to him, watch out these cars have stopped mate, anyway he could never quite stop in time and no abs didnt help im sure and we slammed straight into the back of a brand new 7 series which the man had only had for 3 days 😂, while my mate was out the car i was trying not to burst out laughing still sitting in the corsa because of all the cars he had to hit that one ,luckily the bmw driver just wiped a white scuff off his back bumper, but the corsa had a bent bonnet and my mate drove it everwhere for 3 more years like it 😂, thanks hubnut for reminding me of the best days of my life
I did a very similar thing also being 18 in 2009! Went into the back of a brand new Mercedes CLS in Tesco car park at about 10mph. I was in my 1993 Fiat Uno with two mates, and it didn’t leave a mark on my car, but shame for the Merc owner he had a dented and scuffed rear bumper. The way he shouted and swore at me he was lucky not to leave with a dented and scuffed face haha!! Good times.
Cheerful little boxes, these Corsas. Their unagressive styling and their interior details always give me the feeling of coming home, despite never owning one (we had other Opels in the family though). A friend of mine had an 1.2 16V automatic for years which was old-school _very_ slow. I drove it on occasion - the rare time it was driven more or less normally since said friend is rather erratic driver - and it inspired patience. While far removed from a Peugeot 205's road manners I don't think the Corsa B handled as poorly as it was reputed to be. Eventually that auto developed a fault where the auto selector handle would get stuck and could be made to move only by removing some trim and pushing a yellow lever underneath with a *screwdriver!* I did own a (manual) Corsa C for several years which I found similarly pleasant, and that handled much better, honestly good fun to drive. Too bad there isn't anything that drives like that available anymore.
My first car was a T plate corsa, 5dr 1.2i 16v with allegedly 69bhp I think, it was a club trim which meant sunroof and rev counter as far as i could tell, slightly different to this one in that by 99 they had steering airbag and a stereo with the display on top of the dash with the clock/temp etc. You will never smile fondly after getting out of one of these but as a machine they work well enough with little drama.
Yours had an airbag and dashtop display because it was a Club. The Merit was so basic it didn't even have the display binnacle. You'd have thought it would have cost them more money to produce a base model without it. It's typical Germans punishing you for going for the base spec.
I passed my test in one of these in 2005 but i have to say ive never been a fan .... i baught a 1996 renault clio 1.2 rn off my landlady and i loved thay car ❤ It had just 40 k on the clock She sold it to me for just £50 because it wouldnt start and nobody could fix it.... i found it was the immobiliser lost communication with the key... i sorted it and il never forget the forst time that car started it was magic ... thats where my love affair with this clio began ... i miss it and been looking to buy one but the price of those now ! Astronomical in many cases
The Corsa B always looked like a happy little car. That's something we have lost the last couple of years. Now it is all angry squinting and heavily creased cars. The completely different bodyshell between the 3- and 4-door model was also done some years later on the 2002-2008 Fiesta mk6
Passed my driving test in a Vauxhall Corsa in 1997. All the instruction and driving was done in Bournemouth. Due to lack of test placements available at the time, my instructor phoned me on my birthday of 1997 and told me he would be picking me up ' tomorrow' at 11am as he had booked my test in Dorchester for 1pm. Couldn't have worked out better, no time for nerves and it was a pass.
If I'm not mistaken, the 1.0 was actually more powerful than the 1.2. I have never driven a Corsa B, but I learned to drive in a couple of Corsa C, a 1.2 which felt gutless, and a 1.3 diesel. I much preferred the diesel.
We all love the Corsas we grew up with! I grew up with the Corsa C. Such a soft spot for the SXI with the white dials. Thought they were so cool at the time. Someone had one at work recently. He thought it was rubbish but I thought it was still a good car! Also love the Corsa D. Again in high-spec with the red contrast stitching on the seats and the big alloys. We had one as a hire car and it was my dream first car. Miss being young and enthusiastic about everything. 😂
The Holden version had a cable in the engine bay that I think is absolutely absurd if you used 91 RON you plugged it into the grey female connector and if you used 95 RON the blue female due to fixed ignition timing, the ECU could not do ti itself so the driver had to, so absurdly GM. Best guess is turn of the century EU was ditching 91 so people would have to switch the ignition, but here in Australia we still got 91.
What an unexceptional car! My dad had a 1999 Chevrolet Corsa Saloon, Wind spec ( middrange?). The 1.6 was a bulletproof engine! Great memories in that car! One of the best GM products made in Argentina.
Ahh a Vauxhall Corsa, I knew that because you were spotted and waved to by a member of my Vectra b FB forum while driving from the festival on the motorway on Sunday. Nice to see an old Vauxhall, I have a Vec b 2.5 Gsi a lovely car
Oh boy! I passed my driving test in one of those. It was an Opel Corsa 1.5 D as it was in Portugal. One year before you passed yours! 😅 A few years later, I bought a 1998 1.0 litre, 3 cylinders model, which was very economical but an authentic sewing machine anyways that car did Portugal-Poland and the way back 3 times!
This is a car that gives me lot's of memory's. Back in 1993 my grandad asked the local Opel dealer to give him a call when the first Corsa B would arrive. So when he got the call he grabbed 10 year old me, we jumped in his Corsa A and drove off to the dealer. When we arrived they just started cleaning the car to put it in the showroom. It was a steel gray Corsa B 1.2 Swing 5 doors. We had a short look and the first thing my grandad did was taking a stack of money out of his pocket and said to the dealer: I want this one, when can i have it 😁 A small week later he could pick it up, so he was one of the first in Belgium to own a Corsa B.
What a fantastic memory, thank you for sharing.
I always liked this model. Here in New Zealand, they were badged as a Holden Barina. The were way way waaaay more luxurious than your Corsa because they had a glove box lid. Fancy
In 2010 I bought my daughter a Corsa B 'Breezer' edition for her first car. It cost £1000 and we sold it 2 years later for £1000. Great little car without all the fancy rubbish that goes wrong in modern cars.
These were sold in Australia as the Holden Barina. The base model was known as the Swing, then I think the next model up was the CD, maybe? There was a GSI version, and also a cabrio version as well, which, AFAIK, was modified here in Australia.
Yes, a couple of those Barina cabriolets have somehow made it to the UK.
@HubNut that's really cool! Holden was trying to get the buying public to believe that these were a competitor to the VW Golf Cabrio. Not many people were convinced though, especially considering the 1.4 litre that powered those cars was lethargic at best. I haven't seen one on the road for many years now, but I imagine there's one or two stashed away here and there.
By far the most interesting, knowledgeable and humble automotive reporter/reporter on here definitely. Thank you.
They couldn't sell the Nova under that name in Portugal, because it means 'Doesn't go.' in Portuguese.
In South America, it's a Chevrolet
And they do a pickup!
We owe it to that old 97 Chevrolet.
Combo van looked like the front half of the Corsa.
Funny story about Chevy and the spark to be precise
If you lower a Mk1 Fabia vrs like me then the original drop links no longer fit and instead you are required to use Chevy spark drop links as they have the same mounting bracket’s but slightly shorter
In Australia a Holden Barina although we might not have got them as late as this one.
Back in 2013, when I was living in Spain, I too made a long roadtrip in a borrowed Corsa B (but an Opel, naturally). Me and my then wife borrowed it from a friend of ours in Girona to go via the Cote Azur down to the outskirts of Rome, where the would-be boy-friend of our little Italian Greyhound girl lived. The journey was long and quite tiresome, but one of those I will never forget - the road was absolutely breathtaking all the way! The doggy boy-friend, though very eager, could not do his part of the deal and there were no puppies made... The Corsa on the other hand was the perfect car for the small Italian town we visited - any larger and it would have been impossible to navigate the streets or find a parkingspot. - I still dream of taking a trip on the same road again - but maybe not in a Corsa B the next time. 😅
My mum had one of these for years. Hers had the 1.5D engine so it was very slow but very economical. It was eventually scrapped due to corrosion and the last time we saw it it was being used by the local fire station to practice cutting people out of cars!
Chalk up another "I passed my test in a Corsa B" - on 30th January 1997. It was the third Corsa B I'd driven at that point - one for an initial assessment, and my instructor changed his part-way through my lessons - also, we had a family friend who let me practice in his MkIII Astra (higher spec than last year's FOTU winner, mind), and my first car was a pov-spec Nova. So by the end of March it'd only been six months since I first sat behind the wheel... and I'd driven five different Vauxhalls.
My brother got a raw deal three years later. He passed his test in a Metro. No, I'm not going to call it a Rover 100. It's a Metro and it'll always be a Metro.
I remember also taking my driving lessons in one of these back in the late 90s. BSM use to upgrade their cars every six months at the time. My instructor one day turned up with the upgraded Corsa, which had the air bag, power steering and a bit more bhp being a 1.4. We still didn't get ABS on it, suppose you couldn't have everything.
Now drive a 16 plate Corsa sting 1.2 and being rather base you still don't get a light in the boot!
I would like to see you rag that round some of your favourite Welsh roads, I am sure it would live up to "Power, less is more". Miss Hubnut clearly comes from fine heritage.
Actually no, the Corsa B is the car with the best cupholders I have ever driven. They're exactly sized so the standard "big" paper cup of McDonald's and Burger King fits so snuggly in them, you can go any desired speed and not spill a drop. They only come with the glovebox, as they're in the glovebox lid. Actually (at least here in Germany) there were really high spec models of these. Mine had electric windows, leather seats (heated too) an electric sunroof, alloy wheels, a stereo with a CD changer and metallic paint plus a revvy (if not too strong) 1.2 16V engine. It even handled well, as it was equipped with gas shocks.
Sold in Australia as the Holden Barina. A popular car. My old boss had one, we nick named it the "golf cart" as it always had a set of golf clubs in the back. I think his was a 1.5L. a fun car car to drive just not exceptionally quick.
Nostalgia understood, Ian. I took driving lessons and passed my test, first time, in a Renault 5 TL in 1981, and have never had the chance to drive one since then.
I'm not much of a modern Vauxhall fan, but I did love this era thereabouts with the Nova, Corsa B, Cavalier and Calibra.
I used to be the same but just picked up a cheap mk6 astra 2.0 cdti, very quick, handles extremely well and smooth ride I was very surprised.
Hubnut's quickly becoming one of my favourite YT's.
95, your lucky, 1997 just missed C1 plus 16 seats etc.
Indeed. Have made good use of that! And 7.5 ton trucks.
@@HubNut Yeah, and you can tow big stuff too. It's very annoying!!! Anyway, I'm glad you've got it, I was robbed!!!
I had one of these, but with a Courtney Sport tuned C20LET Calibra turbo engine and F28 6 speed gearbox. It was an absolute beast and could beat most things to 100mph, it actually handled the power very well for a car that was never meant to have that engine in it. Great 90's sleeper fun!
Passed my test in a Corsa B in 1997 and it was also an R reg. Red, iirc. Lovely and calming driving instructor, spent much of my test blocked in by a refuse lorry that had got stuck down a narrow lane
Gear lever scrotum......I shall never look at my gear lever in the same way, thanks Mr H!
Lovely little car Ian. I drove a Nova once many years ago.
I had 3 Vauxhalls one after the other. They were Mark 2 Cavaliers.
Noice. 👍 Very suitable steed for FOTU. We hired a Cavalier in UK in 1995. I really enjoyed driving it. Lovely 5 speed change. BTW. Ads have appeared mid way through your videos now. Been like that for a while. One group of 2 ads in this one. I guess you changed your settings but just letting you know in case RUclips has snuck them in without your knowledge.
Cheers Peter. We have indeed turned on that setting - suspecting the algorithm favours videos with the setting turned on. Bit of a test.
A very Hub nut car! Lovely condition.
We also owned a R reg white Corsa Merit 1.2 8v in 5 door guise. I remember the engine being fairly torquey. It would quite happily pull along at 30 MPH in top gear. I passed my test in a 1.4 8v ls Corsa.
Around 2000 I had an internship at a Opel dealer and these were around a lot. Testdrove pretty much all variants but never saw a poverty spec quite like this. Guess that was limited to some markets. Always kept a soft spot for them.
Love the Corsa B. From the owner of the blue one who was at your social earlier in the year and whose son passed his test 2 weeks ago and is currently out cruising the mean streets of Berkshire in it.
Congrats to your son! Cruising in style! Love the Corsa B, it was a very popular car around the time I passed my driving test in the mid 2000s.
I passed my test in an early K reg in purple 1.5 non turbo diesel....utterly gutless! Brilliant nostalgia video, thanks for sharing!
Nice! Snap for learning and passing my test in one (sep 95 to feb 96). Looks at be a comfortable steed!
Excellent, excellent, excellent. Nothing else to say really.
I had one of these! Exactly the same - colour, spec, everything; although here in Australia it was the Holden Barina. Great ride quality and very frugal fuel consumption (650-700 km on a tank). It even had the blanking plate on the boot light and the worn out gear lever “scrotum” (we also later had a Holden/Vauxhall Astra with the same problem (feature?). Those little vents on the interior door handle actually hid tiny tweeters, which I discovered when I upgraded the audio. I also installed a glovebox door I found at the scrapyard! A lovely little trip down memory lane, thank you!
Had one as a company car in 97. No rear wiper and even the clock on the dash was missing as the boss wouldn’t pay for the clock… lots of fun
I'm so happy to see a piece of my childhood on the channel.
Amazing to see a Corsa that made it through the "max power" period completely unmolested! My mate had a black Corsa of the same period but I dont think I ever heard the engine over the cherry bomb exhaust and twin 12" subwoofers in the boot!! Great times!
Ah lovely, I bought a brand new 5 door in 1994 in glorious 'Rainbow Blue' (PURPLE!). IIRC I don't think it had intermittent wipe which at the time, I put down to it being built in Spain 😂
I had a ‘94 diesel van (if you can call it that!) about a decade ago. Was a total lifeline at the time enabling me to start a business. £350. Ran amazingly well. 😊
Back in 1993 I passed my test in a 2 door Nova saloon, with the offset steering wheel as standard. Good times!
I am very envious, I would give a lot to drive in the car I passed my test in, a K10 Micra, in 1985. What a brilliant car to have for the FOTU!
I'd passed mine four years previously in a rebadged Suzuki Cultus right before they'd started the Geo label here in the US. until last November, it was the smallest thing I'd ever driven.
I was behind and next to you all day at FOTU. My dad's wife had one when we first met after my parents divorce and hers was a 1.0 3 cylinder and It just wouldn't die. That car went over 220k miles before it died of rats eating the wiring after it was sat for a while. It was a great little car!
Loved the name on Eileen! I meant to point the camera at her but got slightly distracted. By everything...
@@HubNut if you ever want to review it and have a go in her yourself then let me know I don't want anything in return 👍
My now wife had a Nova when we first me, I christened it 'nasty' as my feet would catch on the lower steering column on the floor as I drove. But later on we had a mk1 Tigra 1.4 16 valve, what an absolute hoot to drive, stuck to the road like glue, bright red and just brilliant. One of many Vauxhall cars for us. Great run down of pure original cars. Great camera work too from Mrs Hubnut 👍👍👍👍
I must admit at first I thought you were having us all on and it was the Nissan Note in the background!
I thought it was going to be the supermarket trolley 😂
The 5 door ones also had different rear lights and possibly a smaller rear wiper though I would have to certainly bow to the wiper oracle that is yourself for expertise in this subject.
In 1995 I was driving an n-reg 1.5 diesel van for work. Was quite a good wee van and quite nippy
I passed my test in 1990, in a brand new Vectra A. Now I still have a Vectra B in my collection.
Its semi independent rear suspension which allowed a slightly lower boot floor pan.Thats the reason for the ability to have the full size steel or alloy spare wheel.
Lovely little gem.. Only problem is that these old cars has become so expensive..
Haha...I've never heard anyone refer to a shift gaiter as a "scrotum." Thanks for adding to my lexicon!🤣
They must be quite well made as there are still quite a few of these on the roads here in Croatia.
This takes me back aswell Ian. I actually learned and passed my test in 1998 in a brand new "R" reg corsa exactly like this in white but had the 1.4 engine as my instructor had just got it from the dealer 2 days prior. Also i started and had my first lesson on my 17th birthday 😊😊
A perfect choice. Remerkably unexceptional.
Super car ! Time you had some Vauxhall goodness on the show
Had the non-turbo diesels as pool cars at work. Had a few heart stopping moments when I had forgotten that fast pulling away isn't a thing when you have no turbo! Went to the moon and back on a tank of diesel though.
A man with a beard,corduroy trousers and sandals. Talking about his R reg Vauxhall. Sometimes life is just good❤😂
Absolutely perfect and poverty White as well.
We used to have a 1992 Peugeot 106 1.1 with a 4 speed and it was grand on a long run. Luckily for passengers my Wife and I are 5 feet and 5 feet 4 inches respectively. Boot? Yes it had one.
One of a long series of cars badged as a Holden Barina in Australia. The Suzuki Swift based first ones established a good reputation fir the car. The rep drifted down just a bit with the Corsa based ones but took a massive dive from the Daewoo based cars. The curse of sourcing cars from Daewoo being a very large part of the reason Holden collapsed. Not retaining customers in the growing market segments that the Daewoo sourced cars were to represent Holden in.
Oh my, I actually guessed it! And this is pretty much the same spec and colour as my dad's P-reg 5-door one, even down to the radio-only tunes!!! And yes, those are the wrong hubcaps, if I recall they were just little black plastic jobs that fit in the wheel centre...
That one ended up mostly being the stepmother's car, as my dad was usually sporting his bangernomics cars that were less than reliable sometimes, and as a young passenger in the rear, I found the seats to be rather hard, oh and the horn was as weak as the current PM, even sat right behind me once, the stepmother tooting away to get my attention at the bus stop on my way to school, it sounded like it was two streets away!!
P515 YJR, dropped off the DVLA's system now (though shows up in their MOT lookup, oddly), but it was "an car", peppered with rust spots owing to being pelted by the gritters in winter, last saw it being traded in for a Hyundai Lantra (no Elantra!) estate that had a starter motor that was more a lottery some days... :P
Me too 🙂
Usually when they show up on the MOT history and nothing else they've been scrapped. Last keeper change in 2002. No MOT history so it's had no MOTs since 2006. I'd assume scrapped. Doubt it's on a private plate because the website where I checked usually shows the new plate but nothing at all. Up until a few years ago cars were often scrapped yet weren't recorded as such.
@@SuperFIFTHGEAR Oh I'm positive it's scrap, it used to be on the enquiry tool as "Untaxed" and "MOT Due" for a long time, and now it's just not there, so they probably had a data purge at DVLA HQ at somepoint, the car probably ended on a back-lot after it was traded in for the lantra cos it wasn't all that great condition-wise (needed a repaint from the rust spots everywhere from gritter damage) so probably just used, abused and binned as they were back then...
GM tried to sell the Nova in Spanish speaking countries. According to my high-school Spanish no va means doesn't go. Great mane for a car!
They called it Corsa instead. 😉
My grandmother went from a Volvo 940 estate to one of these, the automatic versions. Was always fun seeing her thrash the little Vauxhall at every traffic light trying to imitate the more powerful Volvo and never quite achieving it. She had it for 7 years and apart from an oil change I don’t believe she ever needed to do anything else on it.
My buddy used to have a red one. It was cracking. Thanks both .
This was the 1997 facelift mk1 Corsa (the mk2 emerging in 2000).
And your right the 1.0 3cyl 12v petrol was added at this time-not being part of the original mk1 range. And yes they messed around with the 1.4 petrol as well.
I think 2 diesels were available? A big old 1.7 and a smaller but more modern 1.5tdi…..but I maybe wrong!
I was given a scrap L reg one of them, I spent £250 on it and sold it for £475. Winner. 😊
Also, regarding the column stalks, if you close your eyes when behind the wheel (obvs not while driving) you can pretend you’re in a Series 1 Elise.
Still miss my Corsa Trip in a funky bronze, with eye melting 90's interior design.
The kind of last millennium spec you don't find anymore.
It was badged as a Holden in Australia, with subtle design changes to meet Australian Design Rules and a hotter climate.
Ooh I had a 93 Corsa B SRi ! Lowered, 3 spoke alloys and a Janspeed backbox - as you did in the 90's 😂
How did they manage to get only 44 BHP from 1200cc's?
Drove the length & breadth of the country in an old Nova & then had a Cavalier Sri for years which I adored but then my love for Vauxhall vanished till the Insignia tourer was born, never owned one but one day.
I rented a 2000/01 Corsa B 1.2 16v 5 door when my Fiat Tempra was being tempramental! It performed excellently.
Love the spec. Even the Dacia Sandero has too much kit now. Miss these cars. Made the best for bangernomics, less to go wrong.
Hi hubnut, love the videos, i also have fond memories of this car, back in 2009 when i was 18 my best mate had one of these also in white, i had a bmw e36, anyway we went on holiday with our girlfriends to my grandparents static caravan on the norfolk coast. One day we went to the supermarket about 5 miles down the road 5 of us crammed in this corsa, i was in the front and me and my mate were chatting and he didnt realise that the cars in front had slowed rather quickly we were only doing about 25mph at the time but i said to him, watch out these cars have stopped mate, anyway he could never quite stop in time and no abs didnt help im sure and we slammed straight into the back of a brand new 7 series which the man had only had for 3 days 😂, while my mate was out the car i was trying not to burst out laughing still sitting in the corsa because of all the cars he had to hit that one ,luckily the bmw driver just wiped a white scuff off his back bumper, but the corsa had a bent bonnet and my mate drove it everwhere for 3 more years like it 😂, thanks hubnut for reminding me of the best days of my life
I did a very similar thing also being 18 in 2009! Went into the back of a brand new Mercedes CLS in Tesco car park at about 10mph. I was in my 1993 Fiat Uno with two mates, and it didn’t leave a mark on my car, but shame for the Merc owner he had a dented and scuffed rear bumper. The way he shouted and swore at me he was lucky not to leave with a dented and scuffed face haha!! Good times.
Simple cars and happier days 😊
I passed in the next shape "Corsa C", 1.2 Twinport (80bhp) Design spec, 55 plate. Lasted until 2021 when it got marked as scrapped
Cheerful little boxes, these Corsas. Their unagressive styling and their interior details always give me the feeling of coming home, despite never owning one (we had other Opels in the family though). A friend of mine had an 1.2 16V automatic for years which was old-school _very_ slow. I drove it on occasion - the rare time it was driven more or less normally since said friend is rather erratic driver - and it inspired patience. While far removed from a Peugeot 205's road manners I don't think the Corsa B handled as poorly as it was reputed to be. Eventually that auto developed a fault where the auto selector handle would get stuck and could be made to move only by removing some trim and pushing a yellow lever underneath with a *screwdriver!*
I did own a (manual) Corsa C for several years which I found similarly pleasant, and that handled much better, honestly good fun to drive. Too bad there isn't anything that drives like that available anymore.
My first car was a T plate corsa, 5dr 1.2i 16v with allegedly 69bhp I think, it was a club trim which meant sunroof and rev counter as far as i could tell, slightly different to this one in that by 99 they had steering airbag and a stereo with the display on top of the dash with the clock/temp etc. You will never smile fondly after getting out of one of these but as a machine they work well enough with little drama.
Yours had an airbag and dashtop display because it was a Club. The Merit was so basic it didn't even have the display binnacle. You'd have thought it would have cost them more money to produce a base model without it. It's typical Germans punishing you for going for the base spec.
I passed my test in one of these in 2005 but i have to say ive never been a fan .... i baught a 1996 renault clio 1.2 rn off my landlady and i loved thay car ❤
It had just 40 k on the clock
She sold it to me for just £50 because it wouldnt start and nobody could fix it.... i found it was the immobiliser lost communication with the key... i sorted it and il never forget the forst time that car started it was magic ... thats where my love affair with this clio began ... i miss it and been looking to buy one but the price of those now ! Astronomical in many cases
There were a lot of white Corsas here at the coast. They started off red, then became streaky bacon pink beforehand though.
Absaloutly brilliant video Ian miss hubnut ❤👍I used to have the 1l it was very nippy lovely little car brilliant
Holden Barina in Australia.
They had a plug under bonnet to allow use of 91 ron/95 ron fuel.
You could get them with air con in australia.
Identical to my old Combo 1.7D just without the big box on the back.
The Corsa B always looked like a happy little car. That's something we have lost the last couple of years. Now it is all angry squinting and heavily creased cars.
The completely different bodyshell between the 3- and 4-door model was also done some years later on the 2002-2008 Fiesta mk6
Passed my driving test in a Vauxhall Corsa in 1997. All the instruction and driving was done in Bournemouth. Due to lack of test placements available at the time, my instructor phoned me on my birthday of 1997 and told me he would be picking me up ' tomorrow' at 11am as he had booked my test in Dorchester for 1pm. Couldn't have worked out better, no time for nerves and it was a pass.
If I'm not mistaken, the 1.0 was actually more powerful than the 1.2.
I have never driven a Corsa B, but I learned to drive in a couple of Corsa C, a 1.2 which felt gutless, and a 1.3 diesel. I much preferred the diesel.
you never cease to amaze me. I'd never think about referring to it as "gear lever scrotum" :'D
Starting at Sainsbury's Hangleton as i could see my car in the carpark .
We all love the Corsas we grew up with! I grew up with the Corsa C. Such a soft spot for the SXI with the white dials. Thought they were so cool at the time. Someone had one at work recently. He thought it was rubbish but I thought it was still a good car! Also love the Corsa D. Again in high-spec with the red contrast stitching on the seats and the big alloys. We had one as a hire car and it was my dream first car. Miss being young and enthusiastic about everything. 😂
The clips to take the tension off the seatbelt are fantastic, stops it tightening on your bladder !
The retroness and poverty spec is so HubNut
Can't remember last time I saw one of those. ❤
Directly behind all those blanking plugs, you will often find the necessary wiring powered and enabled for the missing scoped out option components!
The background of the introduction perfectly fits the notion of unexeptional indeed.
Seagulls better known in Australia as Sh*t Ducks.
One of the alternative living channels I watch drove a similar aged Corsa from Portugal to Tyneside and back last Christmas. It never missed a beat.
😊
I think there are some nice decorative steel wheels under those hubcaps.
The Holden version had a cable in the engine bay that I think is absolutely absurd if you used 91 RON you plugged it into the grey female connector and if you used 95 RON the blue female due to fixed ignition timing, the ECU could not do ti itself so the driver had to, so absurdly GM. Best guess is turn of the century EU was ditching 91 so people would have to switch the ignition, but here in Australia we still got 91.
I love those oval reverse lights, these are #2 of my favorite car lights, #1 is the maestro reverse lights.
It’s never happened before, but it’s love at first sight for me and that simple, elegant and meaty steering wheel.
What an unexceptional car! My dad had a 1999 Chevrolet Corsa Saloon, Wind spec ( middrange?). The 1.6 was a bulletproof engine! Great memories in that car! One of the best GM products made in Argentina.
Ahh a Vauxhall Corsa, I knew that because you were spotted and waved to by a member of my Vectra b FB forum while driving from the festival on the motorway on Sunday. Nice to see an old Vauxhall, I have a Vec b 2.5 Gsi a lovely car
Ah. Were they in a Transit?
@@HubNut Possibly they didn't mention that part. He drove alongside you and gave you a thumbs up. He said you had a little smile on your face :-)
Oh boy! I passed my driving test in one of those. It was an Opel Corsa 1.5 D as it was in Portugal. One year before you passed yours! 😅 A few years later, I bought a 1998 1.0 litre, 3 cylinders model, which was very economical but an authentic sewing machine anyways that car did Portugal-Poland and the way back 3 times!