Opel Corsa
The Opel Corsa is a supermini car[1][2][3] engineered and produced by the German automobile manufacturer Opel since 1982. It has been sold under a variety of other brands (most notably Vauxhall, Chevrolet, and Holden) and also spawned various other derivatives.
At its height, the Corsa was the best-selling car in the world in 1998, recording 910,839 sales with assembly operations in four continents and was sold under five marques of General Motors and five body styles.[4] By 2020, over 18 million Corsas had been sold globally.[5]
The front-wheel drive Opel Corsa was first launched in September 1982. It went on sale first in France, Italy, and Spain - markets where small cars represented from 34 to 43 percent of sales.[6] Built-in Zaragoza, Spain, the first Corsas were three-door hatchback and two-door saloon models, with four-door and five-door versions arriving in 1984. In certain markets, commercial "van" models were also sold, with or without rear windows depending on local requirements. In mainland Europe, the saloon versions were known as the "Corsa TR" until May 1985 and received an egg-crate grille rather than the four slits used on hatchbacks. The saloons were intended to appeal to customers of the Opel Kadett C and its sister the Vauxhall Chevette who still desired a traditional 3-box sedan shape - but it did not sell particularly well in most of Europe but were popular in Spain and Portugal, among other markets. While only taking ten percent of French Corsa sales during the car's first half-year, the TR represented half of all Corsas sold in Spain.[7]
The basic trim level was called just the Corsa, which was followed by the Corsa Luxus, Corsa Berlina, and the sporty Corsa SR. The SR receives a spoiler which surrounds the rear window, alloy wheels, checkered sport seats, and a somewhat more powerful 70 PS (51 kW) engine.[8] Six years later, the Corsa received a facelift, which included a new front fascia and some other minor changes. The models were called LS, GL, GLS, and GT.
The Corsa A was known in the United Kingdom market as the Vauxhall Nova (as it was considered that Corsa sounded too much like "coarser"), where it was launched in April 1983, following a seven-month-long union dispute due to British workers being angry about the car not being built there, in contrast to the rival Ford Fiesta, Austin Metro and Talbot Samba.[9] In addition, there was also a dispute about the disparity of import tariffs, as while cars exported from Spain to the European Community were subject to tariffs of only 4.4 per cent, those exported in the other direction were subject to tariffs as high as 36.7 per cent.[10]
Power first came from 1.0 L 45 hp, 1.2 L 55 hp, and 1.3 L 70 hp petrol engines. (The first engines were all equipped with carburetors; fuel injection came later, but never for the 1.0.) The engines were based on the well proven Family I design,[citation needed] except for the 1.0 L and early 1.2 L engines, which were based on the OHV unit from the Kadett C.
