New Corsa wins AUTOBEST 2015 award

At the large test finale in Belgrade, Serbia, the newcomer prevailed with a total of 994 points over similarly brand-new competitors including the Hyundai i20 (906 points), Skoda Fabia (871 points) and Citroën C4 Cactus (830 points), making it the first ever car in AUTOBEST history to win the prestigious award with consecutive model generations.

The AUTOBEST expert jury is made up of leading motoring journalists from 15 central and eastern European countries. Comprising around 300 million people, the award is extremely popular and highly respected in this market. Only cars with a compelling price-performance ratio can win this title, because next to classic vehicle characteristics, the jury also carefully considers maintenance costs, spare-parts distribution and dealers' range of services.

Meaningful evolution

Ultimately the best deal for the normal, average customer is victorious - and the Opel Corsa proved to be unbeatable. Dan Vardie, chairman of the AUTOBEST jury, stated: "The new Corsa proved to be a great small car. The new generation Corsa is a meaningful evolution of the Opel model that won AUTOBEST award seven years ago."

"We are convinced that the Corsa is the best new small car, and now the AUTOBEST jury has confirmed this," commented Opel Group CEO, Dr Karl-Thomas Neumann. "We are very proud of this. The new-generation Corsa stands for the art of German engineering, emotional design and excellent value for money. Safety and assistance systems as well as new, state-of-the-art engines and transmissions are real technological highlights."

The Corsa is one of Opel's most important models and accounts for around one-fourth of the tradition-rich brand's total sales. In the 32 years since the first-generation Corsa was introduced to the market, over 12.4 million units of the small car have been sold. The fourth-generation alone, the Corsa D, sold around three million units between 2006 and 2014 and won the AUTOBEST award in 2007. The new Corsa is also a cornerstone of Opel's ongoing product offensive: to 2018, the brand will introduce 27 new cars and 17 new engines to the market.

The new Corsa will be available in South Africa during the first quarter of 2015.