my car is still out of commission but fortunately i have a week off from work this week. last week i drove a replacement car from the garage and so was able to compare a 2007 car to a 1987 car under the same circomstances for one week.
when i got the car the tank was nearly empty. the needle possitioned at the beginning of the red area. so i put in about 8 liters of diesel.
i wasn't to impressed by the car itself though. the model has grown from something positioned below my kadett to a car of almost identical dimentions, though rear seating and trunk space was slightly less and i still considder my car more practial. powered steering felt rather uncomfortable at first. It took less effort taking a roundabout at speed or parking, yet while cruising it felt heavy and uncommunicative. handling roadholding and breaks where fine and definately better than my car, although it felt like this car would not let one know when the limit was finally reached, something my car definately does wich makes one not want to puch it to far.one could say with my kadett we communicate back and forth about what's going to happen, while with the corsa it just does what it's tolled... no questions asked. i'm sure it's much safer in the end but it makes driving it rather dull. that again it got me to work wich is what all this driving was really about.
the worsed thing about the corsa where the dead angles. the inclind winshield is framed by two solid looking pillars that are constantly blocking vision when taking turns or comming onto main roads. also the B pillars are right in your face when looking behind you... something the 3 door version of this car might not have. one could argue the inclind windshield pays of in aerodynamics but the Cd of this car is about the same as that of mine and it's got a bit more frontal area so in the end drag might be worse. while some problems are annoying or uncomfortable i considder poor forward visibility to be dangerous and no ammount of redured drag will make up for it.
the car came with a tachometer wich i considder something very usefull and i will probably try to install on my car now.
i found it's more usefull to be able to see where you are on the engines power curve than how fast you are going... the 5th grear was a nice feature to and will be badly missed if i get my 4 speed back. shifting up early enabled me to keep the engine between 1000 and 2000 rmp most of the times exept at very high speeds or when pulling up (wich went pretty well).
still by the end of the week i was not impressed by 20 years of automotive evolution untill i saw the milage... autch
i'd drivven 240 km and the fuel gauge was back at the red.... thats 240 km with 8L making for 3.33L/100 km or 70.63mpg
without EOC, aeromods, or even shutting the engine off at redlights. i know these figures are by no means exact and i could be quite a bit off, but it's fair to assume that when driven with FE in mind this car is capable of some serious hypermiling.
i found the overall concept of the car to be something of a disapointment, but i'm uttery impressed with the milage although i didn't have the chance to evaluate it proppery.
finally opel as build a prototype of this car as a mild hybrid. wich i'm sure has an even better milage.
i believe people should spend much more attention to their shifting and shifting up early and keeping the revvs down as much as possible can yield spectacular results.
i don't have a picture of the car i drove but there's a red one, the one i drove was grey
but that i totally believe that with the right driving style this engine is capable of approaching if not exeeding 70 mpg easily.
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