Corsa: the real 5-year cost
The Vauxhall Corsa is Britain's honest answer to expensive motoring: £19,000 to buy and a five-year true cost of just £22,940 — about £382 a month. At 8,000 miles a year, fuel costs roughly £1,026 thanks to 51.4 mpg combined, insurance sits at £552, maintenance at £426 and road tax at £190. Nothing here is glamorous, and nothing needs to be. The Corsa is the car for everyone who has done the maths and realised a supermini does 95% of what a family hatchback does for two-thirds of the money.
Young drivers, second-car households and city commuters: this is your benchmark, and the rest of this page shows exactly why. We have added up five years of fuel, insurance, servicing and tax to give you the honest monthly figure.
| Purchase price | £19,995 |
| Fuel (5 yrs) | £5,130 |
| Insurance (5 yrs) | £2,800 |
| Maintenance (5 yrs) | £2,150 |
| Road tax (5 yrs) | £950 |
| Minus estimated resale value | −£7,398 |
Corsas depreciate like all superminis — steadily but not catastrophically, because there is always a queue of buyers wanting cheap-to-run small cars. Buying at a year old saves thousands off the new price. To keep costs rock-bottom, learn basic maintenance yourself (the Corsa is simple to work on), fit sensibly priced tyres from a reputable fitter rather than premium rubber the car does not need, and keep the mileage modest with a fully stamped service book — a full history transforms resale at this price point.
Our verdict: the Corsa will never excite you, but it will never surprise you either. For pure cost-per-mile motoring in the UK, almost nothing beats it. It is transport in its purest form: affordable, dependable and refreshingly free of financial surprises.