It is still possible, just two low hatchbacks with funny three-cylinders with the same power as ever a Volkswagen Lupo GTi. What is the best driving B segmenter at the moment? The brand new Corsa challenges title holder Fiesta.
It is clear that Opel has not gotten worse since PSA took over the brand. Collaborations for the SUVs Grandland X (3008) and Crossland X (2008) stood
already on the schedule before the manufacturers merged, but the new Corsa really came into existence after the acquisition of Opel. In fact, all the progress that Opel itself had already made in developing a new Corsa could be thrown overboard, because it was more attractive for the French to make a model based on the brand new 208. We will probably never know how well that completely ‘German’ Corsa would have been, although chances are that the design of that car will one day emerge in beautiful stories about what could have been. As long as the current model is still available, Opel will keep those design drawings in a secret underground safe.
Whatever the case, Opel now seems to be able to combine the best of both worlds. The brand cars have always had nice steering and very fine undercarriages, but they were also very heavy and they had unpleasant engines, which always seemed to miss a handful of horsepower. And let PSA have good cards in that area. The 1.6 THP and the three-cylinder with and without turbo are fine blocks, which perform well in both small cars and large SUVs. The Grandland X also showed us that PSA cars of different brands, but with the same technical basis, know more about each other than, for example, the Volkswagen Group, where certainly the small SUVs are very similar.