Team-BHP - Corsa 1.4 or 1.6?or any other suggestions

One of my friends is thinking about buying a second hand corsa which has run around 45,000 Kms . He intends to run it another 50,000 kms .

He needs help in the following area:(1)identifying potential maintenance problems (2)cost of replacements of body parts (3) cost of replacement of consumables(4)average cost of ownership (5) life of tyres etc..

Your advise and comments are solicited.

regards

The car is good - no doubt. Bu the fact that its value has plummeted - might sting later as jkdas says.

I've driven it in the hills, on highways and in the city and the ride quality never fails to impress. Its more expensive than a Maruti alright. But then again, the build quality is excellent and the car 'feels' very very safe - and thats important.:)

Answering your queries:

1. My aircon knob snapped (maybe i pulled too hard?) - the whole panel needed to replaced and cost 2,000/-. Solution - The service center did a temp. repair for 400/-. Not a single problem otherwise over 25,000 Kms.

2. Expect body part replacements to be fairly expensive

3. Consumables are comparable with other cars. being a fairly modern car ( as compared to Amby's etc) the periodic service interval depends on the Odo. and hence may be slightly easier on the pocket? what i mean is the car goes a long way before it needs attention !

4. average cost? cost me about 2~3K a year ( i drive less than 10K a year)

5. Factory fit Bridgestone S322's - 25K and going strong.

Its a good car. But the fact that its now considered 'a car of the yesteryears' needs to be looked at. Hope this helps.

Hi,

Answers to yer questions:

(1)identifying potential maintenance problems
1. Go with the servicing schedule and its a good car and it wont let you down.

(2)cost of replacements of body parts
2. Costs have been cut too much spares are chaper now. Side mirror costs rs 600 only now. hehe. front right door mirror costing rs 700.

(3) cost of replacement of consumables
3. service costs like 2000 - 2500 after every 10k KM.

(4)average cost of ownership
4. Depends upon yer driving. I had the car for like 3 months gave around 14 with good driving and 12 with rough.

(5) life of tyres etc..
30 - 35k. Get michellin certis / XM1 that can make them got for 50 - 55k.

Quote:

Originally Posted by abhijit 2284

Hi Friends,

I want to buy a car with a boot within a budget of 1.5-1.75L.It will be used as a second car and will be doing only about 5000kms maximum per year and want to use it for another 4-5 years.
I have seen one Opel corsa 1.6(2002 model,39k km) excellent condition and another corsa1.4(2003,41k km).Both cars are in mint condition with all service records etc.Price quoted for both are 1.8L(very slightly negotiable it seems).Which other car with boot(other than esteem) can i get within this budget ?
Will the maintenance of corsa be difficult? Will the parts be available?What will be the mileage for the 1.4 and 1.6 corsa?
Please give your reply on this so that it will be easy for me to take the correct decision.

Cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by narayan (Post 768870)

within that budget, you may get some really OLD IKONS, accents, OHC 1.3
but wats the point. these cars would be anywhere from 5-10 years old - ( meaning - older than the corsas )

any specific reason for avoiding the ESTEEM ?

Hi Narayan,

As you said i might get an old ikon or OHC but the corsa i am talking about is like in showroom condition and with relatively low mileage.I had used an esteem before for almost 4 years so don't want to buy an esteem again even though it served me well.

i have a corsa 1.4 with boot with 30K odo. i would not recommend buying it for the following reasons:
1. bad FE. i never measured it but i would not be surprised if it is as bad as 7kmpl in b'lore city traffic with AC on.
2. hopeless a.s.s. "engine temperature" goes near red mark.. and the problem persists even after repeated visits to the dealer. i suspect they just send back the vehicle without doing anything. as such sundaram is *so* overloaded to service anything.
3. very sluggish engine (1.4) and stiff steering.

on the +ve side:
excellent build, finish and ride comfort.

i heard GM actually stuffed some korean engine inside this supposedly german opel?

i'd say go with esteem or baleno (not sure how they compare wrt price)

Quote:

Originally Posted by stable rock (Post 768875)

hi
in that case do u really need a full sized boot ? if not - try some hatch...
( i assume AMBY is not ir ur wish list ?!! )

Quote:

Originally Posted by androdev

"engine temperature" goes near red mark.

A guy at work has a Corsa and after reading what you posted about engine temp, reminded me of something he told me. It sounded stupid to me, but anyway... :)

He says that he read in some auto-mag, that cars like the Corsa / Ikon / Accent need to be driven always with the a/c on. If not, the engine temp will rise close to the red mark. As per him, in his Corsa, if he drives without a/c, this happens. But if he drives with a/c on, temp is normal.

I would expect the reverse to be the case (if at all), because the a/c will add load to the engine.

Quote:

supremeBaleno : He says that he read in some auto-mag, that cars like the Corsa / Ikon / Accent need to be driven always with the a/c on. If not, the engine temp will rise close to the red mark. As per him, in his Corsa, if he drives without a/c, this happens. But if he drives with a/c on, temp is normal.

May be the a/c is used to cool the engine, instead of the passengers & the cabin ! :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno (Post 769073)

He says that he read in some auto-mag, that cars like the Corsa / Ikon / Accent need to be driven always with the a/c on. If not, the engine temp will rise close to the red mark. As per him, in his Corsa, if he drives without a/c, this happens. But if he drives with a/c on, temp is normal.

this trick surely works. this is how we also managed for sometime. but even this trick stopped working now. but the problem also has become intermittent. the car also doesn't get used much.. but need to fix it for good one of these days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno (Post 769073)

It does make some sense as turning the A/C on would activate the second cooling fan & thus pump more air towards the radiator/condensor which would help in bringing the engine temperature down.

What this could also mean is the primary fan of the Corsa is not sufficient enough to keep the engine cool in hot climates & so maybe the cooling system needs some working upon.

Rags is right. My wife drives a Corsa Sail and it has the sme problem. This winter Mumbai got a bit chilly (one day it was 8-9 deg C) and she wanted to drive it without the AC so I told her to turn the fan off and AC on this way she wont get a blast of cold air but the second fan will turn on.

Opel's Astre also had problems with over heating but this was becuas the second fan would not come on untill the water tempreture almost reached 100 deg C.