It’s always an amazement for Europeans traveling the United States to see so few diesel cars around. They have more than half of the market in Europe, and the revamped super-frugal Corsa is the kind of car that could make diesel’s marketshare go even higher. Not that the facelift is an important one. The frond end gains some fluidity, but it doesn’t look that different from the original Corsa which was launched in late 2006. The interior gets better materials to provide a more luxurious experience, and the navigation system gets the complete cartography of 28 countries! That’s the big advantage of a car that is cheap to run, you can drive a lot.

The most sober model is the ecoFLEX. According to the official European figures, fuel consumption is 67-mpg for the 3-door Corsa, and 65-mpg for the 5-door, which is a bit heavier, and a bit less aerodynamic. It’s true that the Corsa is a small car, about the same size as Ford’s Fiesta, but these are remarkable numbers. The engine is a 95-hp 1.2-liter 4-cylinder diesel, a sophisticated little unit that’s shared with Fiat, it comes with a Stop & Start system that prevents it from running when the car is stopped.

Sadly, this diesel engine very probably doesn’t meet US emission regulations, and would it be compliant the car isn’t, which is a huge mistake from GM (Opel’s the European brand of General Motors). Toyota sells its Yaris worldwide, and so does Ford with its Fiesta, but the Corsa hasn’t been engineered to meet American D.O.T. requirements. We can only hope the Corsa’s next generation will…