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.
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. 😅
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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
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
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.
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!
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.
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 😊😊
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. 😊
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 👍👍👍👍
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 UA-cam has snuck them in without your knowledge.
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.
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...
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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. 😂
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 😂
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.
Ahhhhh.......the Vauxhall Corsa. Known to us antipodeans as the Holden Barina. I drove one as a company car - slightly more up-spec'd than that one, but not by much as it still had the 1.2 litre growler under the bonnet. I fitted longer wiper blades to it so that the Area of Disappointment above the swept area was minimised and the sweep overlapped properly so there was no triangle of doom either. I had to be rather precise though because there wasn't much distance between the two blades when parked and I didn't want an overhang off the passenger's side either as I think that looks naff! I think I ended up adjusting the passenger's wiper arm (with the help of a vice and a hammer) so that the blade was canted up on a 20 degree angle (ie: low end to centre and high end on the outside edge) when parked, but it fit on the screen, didn't foul the driver's wiper, wiped higher on the screen and didn't look out of place. Amazing how much a wiper function can bother someone and the lengths they will go to fix it, isn't it?! Anyway, always thought they weren't a bad wee car - a bit gutless on the hills, so working the 'box was mandatory and became second nature, but a sound car all the same. Unlike the bigger Vectra, these little cars didn't seem to have interior trim rattles or squeaks when they got into the big milages, either, although like the Vectra, the seat did become more of a squidgy unsupported sofa cushion and the seat cloth became baggy as a result.....but yeah. As a round town car, they were well good enough. Headlights were great at night too. Another of the cars that just did what we wanted it to do without fanfare - the absolute definition of Unexceptional if ever there was one. Incidentally, you sat your driver's test on my wife's 25th birthday - and only three and a half months after we married! I sat mine on the 17th of December 1984 at the age of 15 years, 3 months and 20 days.....then spent the evenings of that week ferrying my father and uncle around to various 'shouts' that happened in the building trade at that time of year.,,,and then with just 10 days experience, drove my parents' 40,000 mile Austin A35 over 120 miles to our summer holiday spot - the last 20 or so miles of which were narrow, unsealed, winding gravel roads with much corrugation, many pot holes and cliffs that dropped hundreds of feet into the pacific ocean right beside me! A summer I will never forget. All the best
I passed my test in one as well. And it was a 1.2 merit and P reg 1996. No power steering but unlike this one had a rev counter. Incredibly slow engine. Had to go down to 3rd to get up hills at speed. My first car a polo 1.3 mark 3 with a whopping 55bhp, electric windows and power steering was a big upgrade. But the corsa was the car that got me moving. I guessed a corsa as everyone passed their test in these cars. My friend had the 1.0 3 cylinder and that was quicker than my polo. Sounded quite interesting too.
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.
I had a 1996 5 dr Corsa B, a luxury GLS 1.4 16v! Actually preferred the 5dr as it was more stable on the motorway and had more room in the boot for audio gear like subs and amps (I was young!). Still see a few running around as dailies, won't be long before they're pretty much all gone.
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.
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.
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!
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
We ran around 60 1.4 Combo vans back in day, gave us very good service and dead simple to maintain. We also ran many 1.7 diesels as well, they also gave us good service. The item that gave us the most problems was the hazard flasher switch.s kept falling apart.
I drove a 1.4 Corsa van for a few years in the early 90s. It had a cracking engine and was night and day compared to the godawful 1.1 litre Mk3 Fiesta van I had before.I
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.
In argentina the Corsa was sold under the chevrolet badge, as many other opel/vauxhall models (Astra, Vectra, Meriva, etc). Except for chile, because they are different( i guess)
My memories of the Corsa are from an L-reg Combo van. Non-turbo diesel, but reasonably lively compared with my previous company vehicle, the Renault Extra van (based on the Renault 5). From there I progressed to my all-time favourite Peugeot 405 estate with a very lively turbo diesel and power steering... that would climb up a wall with sticky enough tyres!
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.
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. 😅
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Nice! Snap for learning and passing my test in one (sep 95 to feb 96). Looks at be a comfortable steed!
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!
Gear lever scrotum......I shall never look at my gear lever in the same way, thanks Mr H!
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.
A very Hub nut car! Lovely condition.
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!!!
They couldn't sell the Nova under that name in Portugal, because it means 'Doesn't go.' in Portuguese.
I'm so happy to see a piece of my childhood on the channel.
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
Excellent, excellent, excellent. Nothing else to say really.
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 😊😊
I passed my test in an early K reg in purple 1.5 non turbo diesel....utterly gutless! Brilliant nostalgia video, thanks for sharing!
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 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 😂
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!
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!
Back in 1993 I passed my test in a 2 door Nova saloon, with the offset steering wheel as standard. Good times!
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.
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.
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.
They must be quite well made as there are still quite a few of these on the roads here in Croatia.
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.
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.
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 👍👍👍👍
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 UA-cam 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.
In 1995 I was driving an n-reg 1.5 diesel van for work. Was quite a good wee van and quite nippy
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.
I was given a scrap L reg one of them, I spent £250 on it and sold it for £475. Winner. 😊
A man with a beard,corduroy trousers and sandals. Talking about his R reg Vauxhall. Sometimes life is just good❤😂
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...
I passed my test in 1990, in a brand new Vectra A. Now I still have a Vectra B in my collection.
Haha...I've never heard anyone refer to a shift gaiter as a "scrotum." Thanks for adding to my lexicon!🤣
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.
Still miss my Corsa Trip in a funky bronze, with eye melting 90's interior design.
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 👍
Super car ! Time you had some Vauxhall goodness on the show
Absaloutly brilliant video Ian miss hubnut ❤👍I used to have the 1l it was very nippy lovely little car brilliant
It was badged as a Holden in Australia, with subtle design changes to meet Australian Design Rules and a hotter climate.
I rented a 2000/01 Corsa B 1.2 16v 5 door when my Fiat Tempra was being tempramental! It performed excellently.
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.
Lovely little gem.. Only problem is that these old cars has become so expensive..
Ooh I had a 93 Corsa B SRi ! Lowered, 3 spoke alloys and a Janspeed backbox - as you did in the 90's 😂
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.
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.
My buddy used to have a red one. It was cracking. Thanks both .
A perfect choice. Remerkably unexceptional.
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. 😂
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 😂
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.
Starting at Sainsbury's Hangleton as i could see my car in the carpark .
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.
Ahhhhh.......the Vauxhall Corsa. Known to us antipodeans as the Holden Barina. I drove one as a company car - slightly more up-spec'd than that one, but not by much as it still had the 1.2 litre growler under the bonnet. I fitted longer wiper blades to it so that the Area of Disappointment above the swept area was minimised and the sweep overlapped properly so there was no triangle of doom either. I had to be rather precise though because there wasn't much distance between the two blades when parked and I didn't want an overhang off the passenger's side either as I think that looks naff! I think I ended up adjusting the passenger's wiper arm (with the help of a vice and a hammer) so that the blade was canted up on a 20 degree angle (ie: low end to centre and high end on the outside edge) when parked, but it fit on the screen, didn't foul the driver's wiper, wiped higher on the screen and didn't look out of place. Amazing how much a wiper function can bother someone and the lengths they will go to fix it, isn't it?!
Anyway, always thought they weren't a bad wee car - a bit gutless on the hills, so working the 'box was mandatory and became second nature, but a sound car all the same. Unlike the bigger Vectra, these little cars didn't seem to have interior trim rattles or squeaks when they got into the big milages, either, although like the Vectra, the seat did become more of a squidgy unsupported sofa cushion and the seat cloth became baggy as a result.....but yeah. As a round town car, they were well good enough. Headlights were great at night too. Another of the cars that just did what we wanted it to do without fanfare - the absolute definition of Unexceptional if ever there was one.
Incidentally, you sat your driver's test on my wife's 25th birthday - and only three and a half months after we married! I sat mine on the 17th of December 1984 at the age of 15 years, 3 months and 20 days.....then spent the evenings of that week ferrying my father and uncle around to various 'shouts' that happened in the building trade at that time of year.,,,and then with just 10 days experience, drove my parents' 40,000 mile Austin A35 over 120 miles to our summer holiday spot - the last 20 or so miles of which were narrow, unsealed, winding gravel roads with much corrugation, many pot holes and cliffs that dropped hundreds of feet into the pacific ocean right beside me! A summer I will never forget.
All the best
I passed my test in one as well. And it was a 1.2 merit and P reg 1996. No power steering but unlike this one had a rev counter. Incredibly slow engine. Had to go down to 3rd to get up hills at speed. My first car a polo 1.3 mark 3 with a whopping 55bhp, electric windows and power steering was a big upgrade. But the corsa was the car that got me moving. I guessed a corsa as everyone passed their test in these cars. My friend had the 1.0 3 cylinder and that was quicker than my polo. Sounded quite interesting too.
you never cease to amaze me. I'd never think about referring to it as "gear lever scrotum" :'D
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
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.
The kind of last millennium spec you don't find anymore.
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.
😊
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.
I had a 1996 5 dr Corsa B, a luxury GLS 1.4 16v! Actually preferred the 5dr as it was more stable on the motorway and had more room in the boot for audio gear like subs and amps (I was young!). Still see a few running around as dailies, won't be long before they're pretty much all gone.
Identical to my old Combo 1.7D just without the big box on the back.
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.
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.
Can't remember last time I saw one of those. ❤
There were a lot of white Corsas here at the coast. They started off red, then became streaky bacon pink beforehand though.
Great little cars and reliable
Drum roll 👍👍
I had a 1.5 TD 5 door GLS. Needed a new gearbox but done under warranty. Went through loads of alternators and starter motors. Lasted till 200k miles.
The retroness and poverty spec is so HubNut
I love those oval reverse lights, these are #2 of my favorite car lights, #1 is the maestro reverse lights.
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!
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 :-)
We ran around 60 1.4 Combo vans back in day, gave us very good service and dead simple to maintain. We also ran many 1.7 diesels as well, they also gave us good service. The item that gave us the most problems was the hazard flasher switch.s kept falling apart.
I think there are some nice decorative steel wheels under those hubcaps.
I drove a 1.4 Corsa van for a few years in the early 90s. It had a cracking engine and was night and day compared to the godawful 1.1 litre Mk3 Fiesta van I had before.I
The background of the introduction perfectly fits the notion of unexeptional indeed.
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.
In argentina the Corsa was sold under the chevrolet badge, as many other opel/vauxhall models (Astra, Vectra, Meriva, etc). Except for chile, because they are different( i guess)
Car I learnt in BSM 1.4 merit I love them
That looks good, used to be so common but all gone now..well worth looking after. top stuff. Have fun at the Festival.
I learned to drive in a Corsa B in red it was L reg at the time as I recall.
My memories of the Corsa are from an L-reg Combo van. Non-turbo diesel, but reasonably lively compared with my previous company vehicle, the Renault Extra van (based on the Renault 5). From there I progressed to my all-time favourite Peugeot 405 estate with a very lively turbo diesel and power steering... that would climb up a wall with sticky enough tyres!