Corsa Marks 25 Years with 25 Facts

An era famous for Britpop, Walkmans, shell suits and the Spice Girls, the 1990s was a standout decade for British culture that welcomed another icon in 1993 – the Vauxhall Corsa. 

Vauxhall’s best-seller has always moved with the times. The Corsa was born with cassette players and now offers Apple CarPlay; its most popular engines have almost doubled in power; and its interior dimensions have grown significantly.  

But while design and tech have changed over 25 years, the Corsa’s amazing value hasn’t, its price only increasing by £3,850.

1. The original Corsa was introduced in an advert with supermodels Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista 
2. It was once claimed that about 70% of learners make their first car purchase the same model as they pass their test in[1]
3. Vauxhall has sold two million Corsas in the UK and 9.86 million globally
4. ‘Corsa’ means ‘race’ in Italian
5. When Arctic Monkeys signed a publishing deal with EMI publishing, lead vocalist Alex Turner celebrated by buying a Vauxhall Corsa 
6. The Corsa replaced the much-loved Vauxhall Nova
7. Matt Smith sold his Corsa on eBay for £6.3k, donating the fee to children’s charity Starlight
8. Tinie Tempah, boxer Nicola Adams and ex-Doctor Who actor Matt Smith all bought the Corsa as their first car
9. The most popular latest Corsa colour bought is the Grey, with 45,050 Grey Corsas currently on British roads
10. The original model sold for £7,195, with the price rising by just £3,850 in 25 years. Assuming an annual inflation rate of 2%, it would be less expensive now than in 1993
11. Vauxhall has sold 20,000 Corsas to UK police forces in the past ten years
12. Original Corsa designer Richard Shaw still works at Vauxhall, working through the ranks to Chief Designer for Interiors
13. Famous celebs involved in campaigns for the Corsa include Sean Paul, Claudia Schiffer, James Martin and fictional rock band, The C’mons
14. Vauxhall has supplied thousands of Corsas to driving schools including BSM, Red and Hitachi Capital
15. British artist Alex Chinneck designed a gravity-defying illusionary artwork which saw the artist suspend a Corsa fifteen feet in the air at London’s Southbank Centre
16. Vauxhall renamed its yellow colour to Maddox Yellow to show support for pensioner Peter Maddox, whose yellow Corsa was vandalised
17. The Corsa is one of the most popular used cars bought, with 63,000 sold each year through Network Q, the best place to buy a used Vauxhall
18. Over 100 models of the Corsa have featured in the annual Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair at locations across the UK for the past 13 years
19. The latest generation of the Corsa is available in 13 colours 
20. Some Corsa models have a hidden shark on the hinge of the glove compartment
21. Unusual Corsa models have included a convertible version and a sporty pick-up
22. In 2014, the prototype fourth generation Corsa was in gear to win the Guinness World Record for the “Largest GPS Drawing” 
23. Vauxhall created a pair of bespoke headphones in the shape of a Corsa to help launch the fifth year of the UK Beatbox Championships in 2011
24. The Corsa previously shared some of the same parts with a sports car, the Lotus Elise
25. A new electric Corsa model will be launching in 2019 – Vauxhall’s first electric Corsa.

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