Is the Opel Corsa 1.4 Turbo Sport a unique sporty player?

With the introduction of the new Opel Corsa in February 2015, the Corsa has taken a step up in the Opel ranks, becoming ever bigger and sleeker (certainly a much bigger car than the first Opel Corsa, later known as Corsa Lite) making space for the smaller Opel Adam.

Subtly sporty Turbo Sport

Where the Corsa Essentia, Enjoy and Cosmo models have their space, the Corsa Turbo Sport traditionally bridges the gap between these models and the top OPC performance model… so it should be best of both?

The Corsa GSi is long gone, and in its place came the Corsa Turbo Sport.  So it means lively performance and a typical Opel engine rev-happiness.  Or does it?  The Opel Corsa Sport also reforms to the new smaller engine turbo mantra, so that free-revving typical Opel engine has been replaced by this 1.4 turbo which makes its 110kW as early as 5000 r/min, so not a high revver.  Torque is good, with 220Nm at your disposal between 3000 and 4500 rpm. 

The badge on the back may read TURBO in red fat letters, but this is more decoration than delivery, as 9.6 seconds to 100 is slower than the bold badge suggests.  The sporty exhaust tip added to this model makes no difference to the sound, as this Corsa sounds rather ordinary.  Its fuel economy is fair, giving 8.8 l/100 km according to the on-board computer, in a mix of stop-start driving (the auto engine on-off when standing helps improve economy) and brisk urban / cruising highway drives, which is higher than the claimed 5.9 number quoted.

The gear lever operates 6 forward speeds, and it is a square OPC-like item, which feels quite a handful for a fairly compact car (like it was snatched from a much bigger car).  The steering wheel is also nice and grippy, complete with leather rim and light-grey stitching, squared-off bottom, and that lovely dimpled effect one used to find on BMW M Sport steering wheels.

The outside of the Turbo Sport is spruced up by the addition of the OPC-Line exterior extended sills and bumpers, carbon-look side mirror covers, and bigger 17-inch alloys in a petal design.  All very subtle, except for that red badge.  The test car came in a dark blue, as a special paint finish which moves between hues (almost matt-like blue-grey sometimes) as you move around it.

The interior has a criss-cross white pattern on grey semi-bucket cloth seats, and the mats show letters CORSA in white and SPORT in red, which is the only red in this interior in addition to the red instrument needles.  The rest of the inside is all dark grey with lots of gloss-black trim, and some silver/chrome detailing.  Unfortunately, this German-designed car apes the ape-like driving position from some French/Italian compact cars, meaning the driver’s knees (if an average 1.8m tall) will stick out next to the steering wheel.  Not comfortable.

Modern connectivity

As the Corsa is being marketed as a high-tech modern hatch, the electronics are right up-to-date – the simple layout touch-screen has exactly one centre power button and non-physical touch areas (no actual buttons – simply touch the marking) for volume up-down and to the right a home icon. 

The IntelliLink infotainment screen is touch-sensing, where you can adjust settings and surf through the menu items.  For the photo and/or selfie-enthusiast, a gallery can be loaded to display on the car screen.  Very nowadays is the built-in Apps menu, which comes with Stitcher global podcast internet radio, TuneIn radio app, and BringGo app which gives you a built-in navigation system with live traffic updates, points of interest and Google search.  Useful.  If you are not familiar with any of these types of media, this is not the car for you.

High-tech (and not so high-tech) kit

The Opel Corsa Turbo Sport has Electronic Stability Control, Traction Control, and Straight Line Stability (SLS).  Unusually generous for this size car are bi-xenon headlamps as standard equipment.  LED daytime lamps in the new-look white L-shape give good visibility of and identity to the Corsa Sport.

Rear park distance control with a rear camera is standard on the Sport model, with park assist optional (see below).  A button marked City with a steering wheel icon adds lightness for easy parking, though this sits the the left of the dashboard, clearly as placed for left-hand drive cars.  There is also an Eco button, which puts the car into economical/eco-friendly mode where the throttle pedal is less responsive, and thus burns less fuel.

Pay the R 5000 extra and you get the combination of Advanced Park Assist 2 (which will do the steering for you when parking) and Side Blind Spot Alert (to warn you of a vehicle approaching in your blind spot) as fitted to the test car.  These are high-tech items for this size and price of car.

Then, in contrast to all the abovementioned high-tech stuff, an out-of-place looking manual rotary aircon is fitted – no auto button or digital temperature adjusters here.

Shockingly, Opel somehow thinks modern connectivity and high-tech features go well with manual rear window winders!  Considering that Corsas are likely to be bought by young people with some youngsters of their own in the back of the car, how can they think manual rear winders are good and safe?  This is the same problem on all Corsa, where even the luxury-spec Corsa Cosmo has rear manual windows.

As with many cars, a bonnet sensor will alert you on the instrument panel when you drive off while the bonnet is not fully latched.  On the test car, it kept showing the bonnet open message, which needs one to stop and shut the bonnet.  But as soon as you drive over a speed hump or slight undulation in the road, the alert re-appears.  Thinking this must be an isolated case of an over-sensitive switch, another same car was compared, only to find it had the same issue.  This false error message is distracting to the driver, as it beeps regularly, even with the bonnet properly closed.

Sport(y) players

The Opel Corsa Turbo Sport finds itself in the rarified air of the mid-ground sporty hatch, between the normal and mid-spec trim levels and the top GTi/OPC/RS types.  Clio does a GT-Line, but with its tiny 898cc turbo it looks sporty but is not.  Polo makes the normal hatches and the GTI, with nothing in the middle.  Toyota and Nissan have forgotten how to make sporty hatches.

The closest other player which can serve a challenging ball to the Corsa Sport is the Peugeot 208 GT Line, though it, too, has a weaker 81kW/205Nm engine 1.2-litre turbo… but the 208 GT Line hits back with a surprise curve ball – its light weight of just 1090kg against the Corsa Sport’s 1260kg means it is a 9.6 on the 0-100km/h scoreboard for both.

Price of the Opel Corsa Turbo Sport is R 257 800, sitting near the top of the compact-hatch price span, and overlapping some entry-engine (read fleet car) mid-size hatchbacks, undercutting the pricier 208 GT Line’s R 269 900.  Spend a bit more and your R 276 900 puts you into a properly sporty Fiesta ST, if you are OK with the boy-racer image and 3 doors.

Is the Opel Corsa 1.4 Turbo Sport a unique sporty player?

Sure, it has its faults and is not as sporty as some would have liked (an expectation created by the red TURBO badge and the Sport name) though it does present itself as a sporty player in the compact hatch line-up… but does the Peugeot GT Line offer a sportier alternative, with more personality?  Look out for our review on it, coming up soon, then we will be able to choose which of these are the sportiest.