I have driven a 1.7 cdti astra and couldn't believe the gruff noise and amount of vibration that came through the pedals. I couldn't live with that, I think that's part of the reason I stick with petrol engines.

Chris - there has been previous discussion on HJ about the 1.3 vibration, but no one seems to have come up with an answer. My question here www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=95244

referred to an earlier thread but, as the thread remained unanswered, I guess that those who have observed the vibration have learned to live with it - or got rid of the car.

This may be a figment of my imagination, but I sensed that the vibration was less when I used Tesco (bog standard) diesel. I am checking this at the moment and would be very interested to hear any comments.

My comments on mpg are based on brim to brim monitoring; the best I have ever achieved is 62.8mpg during 60mph journeys on A and M roads. During the summer, including some longer journeys, I get 58mpg. - more mixed driving gives me 55mpg. The lowest ever (by far) was mostly short jouneys in Jan/Feb when I got 45mpg.

Mike Torque - Im impressed with the economy that you can achieve with your Corsa. Does it have the stop start?, what type of fuel do you use. My usual journey is a 50 mile trip. 85 % of the trip is at 70 on A roads and the remaining 15 % on backroads some where between 0 and 60 mph. The best i have ever seen is 56mpg. this is worked out on a tank to tank basis using the method stated on here for HJ's fuel register. I use Asda fuel and add Redex from time to time.

I stick with using Shell FuelSave with Millers Diesel Power EcoMAX (single strength).
Shell FuelSave on its own gives around 2 to 3 mpg less than the above and offers less low rev torque, although off turbo grunt is poor whatever the fuel).

Typically on a 100 mile journey with 45 miles of dual carriageway (speedo normally between 67 and 70mph most of the time) with around 15 roundabouts and the rest a mixture of A and B roads (speedo between 0 and 60mph) with plenty of rolling hills to go up and down and passing through a few small villages and towns I generally get around 78mpg.

The 100 mile return journey gives around 72mpg due to more head wind resistance and more up hills than down hills. I always lift off well before a roundabout and only brake close to the approach, accelerate moderately to get up to cruising speed.
(fuel figures checked with brim to brim and the trip computer is within 1mpg).

On the same route in a Focus mk2 1.6TDCi 109ps I get around 72.5mpg and 66mpg respectively, although with a strong headwind these can drop to 66.5mpg and 59.5mpg respectively. (fuel figures checked with brim to brim and the trip computer is within 1mpg).