I’m a particularly efficient buyer and always try to get the most value for my money. To date, the cars I have owned have been:
Kia Rio
Kia Sportage
Vauxhall Corsa
Vauxhall Astra
Vauxhall Insignia
Spotting a trend? I’m poor. I’m only joking, I’m doing okay, but even if I did have the money to go for an Audi a3, or a BMW 3-series with another 10-20k miles on it, I’d have picked the Insignia any day of the week. While the other cars are more desirable and obviously depreciate less, my Insignia had already done over half of its depreciation by the time it was 3 years old, which is why I snatched up a 2018 plate for next to nothing.
It’s the car that includes everything I wanted for half the price of all its competition, including itself a few years prior. The only other car that was close to being the same value for money for the things I needed in a car was the Skoda Superb, which was another £4k on top of that I ended up getting, so even then I’m still happy with my little depreciator ❤️
The point of that long story is that for me and many other money-conscious shoppers, a top model car from a non-luxury brand usually gets you a lot of cars for your money, especially if they are a few years old. Yeah, you’re missing some niceties, like the badge and the adaptive suspension, but you get all the driving assistance tech, phone connectivity, and heated seats that don’t require a subscription.
With electric cars 1000% on track to become the vehicle of the future, it’s great seeing entries from familiar names, such as the Corsa and the Peugeot 208. Used Corsa-E’s can already be found online for just over £22,250, with only 1000-2000 miles on the clock. That’s a tasty 25% off for a modern, easy-to-use electric car with a 170-200 mile range depending on how to treat it. That’s really not a bad deal as far as electric cars go.
While most people like me will be waiting for another 2/3 years until these cars are down to £14,000, I had a chance to give it a test drive recently, and here are my thoughts on my 24-hour test drive. This review, as you can tell already, is not just about the car, but the market for it over the course of the next few years, the proverbial 0% mark if you will.
Thoughts at 100%
The Corsa definitely looks all grown up now. The Corsa Gen E (the one before it, I know the naming is confusing) was very curvy and sporty, but the new Corsa-E is a bit more muscular and sharp, and nicely filled out in the corners. It’s a good look, which I much prefer to what they’re doing with the Mokka and the new Visor brand language they are going for. Overall I think it’s a sensible look, and one that doesn’t scream electric so will be a sensible pickup for someone not looking to drive a spaceship.
The wheelbase for the electric version is also slightly extended to allow for a meaty 50kWh battery under the floor. It’s also fitted in a clever “H“ pattern underneath the seats and down the transmission tunnel, to fill the gap left by removing the engine. This means floor well isn’t massively interrupted compared to the ICE equivalent, which would be a big problem in a supermini as passenger space is already quite conservative.
The cabin is exactly what you expect from a Vauxhall. It doesn’t feel like anything is going to break, and it’s soft and refined in all the places you normally touch and is cheapy plastic elsewhere. For me this isn’t much of a deal breaker, as long as it’s neat and tidy I’m happy, which the Corsa is. Phone connectivity and tech are all good and easy to use, cannot complain here either. Vauxhall definitely isn’t going for luxury but it’s hard to complain at this price.
Thoughts at 0%
I got the car in the evening before needing to do some charger testing for work. My mum needed help collecting a few Facebook marketplace items ranging from cabinets to books for my siblings. The boot was fine for this class, just over 300l, going up to 1118l with the seats down. You could probably get away with a small to mid-sized Ikea shopping trip in this car.
I didn’t quite get it down to the 0% charge, but that’s not a bad thing as I was only performing everyday tasks with this car, and had more than enough range to do it without having to think about charging. Only if I was to take this on a road trip would I be thinking ahead, but thanks to the 100kW charging capacity, I’d be happier taking this over something like the Nissan Leaf or the Honda E any day of the week. Corsa reckons you could do 20-80% charge in half an hour, which is perfect for your service stops on this imaginary road trip of mine.
The Good
Grown-up design and cabin
A real contender for a great value car in the near future
Fun to drive around and put your foot down from time to time
The Bad
£20,000 get’s you a lot more if you go for a dino-juice car
High depreciation if you buy now
Very non-descript
Conclusion
I really hope this car does well in the used market. We need cars like this to perform well at low prices to help with EV adoption and to show car manufacturers that they don’t need to make crazy-looking concepts to get people on board with electric cars. I really think Stellantis and MG will be extremely common in the next 5-10 years, as the cars are comparatively low to other EV offerings, and used prices are only set to sink lower.
It’s not always about standing out, it’s about a reliable, well-rounded car for a good price, which is what the Vauxhall lineup has always offered. I hope this EV vision is brought to the rest of the Vauxhall car lineup, as the EV Astra is slated for an EV release soon, and the Insignia will be making an appearance as an EV in 2026. I have a feeling that these models will do really well just as they have done for years before going electric.
As lovely as the Polestar’s and Audi E-Tron’s are, they just don’t offer the same type of buyer value to the cheap and broke-ass British Public. Look forward to finally being able to afford electric vehicles in the near future, as long as you’re happy buying second-hand!
In the meantime, I’m keeping hold of my Insignia, until a cheap sexy saloon EV comes out 👍