Apart from........ "Don't!" :P

I've been thinking of getting rid of my 1.4 MPi Fabia for a while now, and I've seen this imaculate 1999 Corsa 1.6 Sport with A/C for sale near me.

Obviusly ( ) I'd like a Fabia VRs, but I really can't aford one, and this looks to be a good compromise.

So OK the quality of the trim isn't ideal, but the Sport spec seats are great, and (for me) a million times better that any Fabia seat I've sat in.

Anyone got any tips of what to lookout for and what to avoid?

And perhaps any other recomendation in the small sporty car market (No Saxo's though!) for around 2K?

Cheers

How many miles and how much is it?

Steve

I haven't noticed the milege TBH, last week it was 1795, today it's 2000!

It really is a minter though

My experience of that shape Corsa was that they are pretty reliable as long as they're serviced regularly. Can't think of anything in particular to look out for aside from all the usual like rust, electrics work, tyre wear, service history with cambelt change, etc.

Good little engine is the 1.6

Honest John might have more to say here

Chris

I think Fabia vrs prices are taking a bit of a nose dive tbh. Might be worth waiting a bit as you are....?

I think Fabia vrs prices are taking a bit of a nose dive tbh. Might be worth waiting a bit as you are....?

Pretty sure they won't be down to

My experience with vauxhalls are they either run perfectly or run like a pile of crap never an inbetween. Check the service history, check the suspension and gators, leaks inside and underneath, rust. The brakes and that the fluid has recently been changed as they did go through spell when their was a problem with moisture in the fluid because they didnt have the right gromit and thus caused brake failure. Make sure you take it for a test drive and get to start it from cold too ;-)

I had a 1.2 corsa for 7 years. i had it serviced every 10K and it never missed a beat. maybe i had a good one but cant recommend it highly enough. Cheap honest motoring. went to the garage less in 7 years than my Vrs has in 12 months

I had one of those as a courtesy car for a while.

It was nice and brisk though it did suffer from bad torque steer when booted and everything fell out of the glove box/shelf.

Don't know what they'll be like at this age though , sorry

I went from a 97 Corsa Sport to the Fabia (albeit vRS) and they truly are worlds apart in terms of comfort. The Corsa really felt like an old car compared to the Fabia.

Are you only changing the car for the seats and a few more BHP? Is there nothing newer that you've seen?

IME Corsas are usually reliable.

However that's the only positive thing I have to say about them. They're slow, rough, inflexible, have inplausibly heavy and low geared steering, are cramped...

The mk1 corsa is a good car.

After owning one for a while I traded it in for the mk2 (what a difference).

The mk2 out does its predecessor 10 fold. If your budget can stretch go for the mk2 1.4 or 1.8 sri.

i have had 2 corsa's and niether ever missed a beat,good cheap cars that do exactly what they say on the tin:thumbup:

My grandad had two Corsas - a 94 M plate and a 2002 02 plate. He had no problems with either of them. However, and this may be a common thing for the more mature owner" when he died his second corsa was three years old with just under 5000 miles on the clock. Not sure if that little running, mostly on short trips would give problems with a modern car. Do make sure you have a proper test drive and give it full throttle at some point to check for blue smoke from the exhaust.

I gave the Corsa a few runs before it was given to my cousin and found it was OK but nothing special. I think it was a 1.2, so not the model you're looking at. The interior felt like it was a lower standard to the Fabia vRS I was running at the time but it didn't feel like anything was going to fall off.