The Nova/Corsa was launched on 1st April 1983 and was to be the smallest model in the range, to compete against competition like the Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 105 and Renault 5.
Initially, the Nova was available in two models - the Basic model, just called Nova and the L with the sporty SR following very shortly after, from 1st August that year.
The base and L models where unique in the small car market, in that they were also available as a saloon, as well as the 3-door hatch, making 5 models in total.
At this point, the 1.3 engine was only fitted to the SR, with the basic model having the 1.0 and the L having the 1.2
Later in 83, the L model became available with the 1.0 engine as well.
Initially, only a 3-door hatch and 2-door saloon where available, with the 5 door hatch and 4-door saloon versions coming in 86.
The hatch and saloon models could be told apart at the front, by the radiator grill, with the saloon having a honey-comb style grill, separate to the bumper and the hatch having a large, 3-slat grill which was a one piece unit combined with the bumper.
01/09/83 saw the availability of a 1.2 Base model and the L model was now available with the 1.0 engine too.
01/04/84 saw the launch of the GL model. This fitted in between the L and the SR and was a more luxurious model, with velour trim, 60/40 split folding rear seat on hatch, padded head rests and bright trim around the side windows, plus other special features (full details in model guide).
It also had the SR dashboard clocks, including the Oil Pressure Gauge and Battery Voltage gauge, something which the later GL model lost.
This was available as a 2 door saloon and a 3-door hatch, both fitted with the 1.2 engine.
01/06/84 saw the launch of the special edition "Swing", limited to 9000 examples, in both 1.0 and 1.2 forms
01/01/85 also saw the launch of the "Sport" model, with a limited run of only 512 cars for homologation purposes for Rallying. For details, Click Here
01/05/85 saw a major overhaul of the range, with the basic model again, only available with the 1.0 engine and we now saw the addition of the Merit. The Merit fitted in between the basic model and the L and was available with the 1.0 and 1.2 engines. This was available in the form of the new 5-door hatch and 4-door saloon models, launched that year, along with the 3-door hatch and 2-door saloon.
At this point, the L model became available with the same 1.3 engine as fitted to the SR and became available in 5-door 4-door body variants.
The GL model was now only available as a 4 or 5 door and all versions where fitted with the 1.3 engine. It was fitted with the sports dash board as before with earlier models, but with out the oil pressure gauge and battery voltage gauge, but the rev-counter was retained.
For this model year, the L gained a split folding rear seat and the basic model gained the availability of the 1.2 engine.
01/06/86 saw the launch of the special edition "Antibes", available in Red, White or Blue, which came with unique interior trim colour-matched to the exterior. White and Blue models came with blue and grey trim and the Red models with red and grey trim. This special trim included red or blue fabric trim down centre of seats and on door panels, plus red or blue carpet! The model also featured a slide/tilt sunroof and the new-style SR sports steering wheel as standard, along with bronze tinted glass.
86 also saw the SR gain the new "Plaid" interior trim, to replace the old "Daytona Check", as fitted previously. This was a grey tartan-type trim, instead of the older brown, of a similar pattern.
The SR also gained the newer style 3-spoke sports steering wheel in 86, which replaced the 4-spoke fitted in earlier models.
The SR also gained the Pierburg 2E3 Carburettor, which is a twin-barrel design, with Auto-choke, which replaced the 1B1 previously fitted
87 saw the availability of a 5-door version of the basic model Nova.
The L gained sports style wheels and passenger door mirror.
The GL gained 4-door central locking as standard, whilst the SR gained 2-door central locking as standard.
01/07/87 saw the re-introduction of the special edition "Antibes". The new version lost the slide/tilt sunroof in favour of a tilt/remove model, but gained an SR tailgate spoiler. Other than that, the spec remained as for the older model, but a metallic grey version was added to the red/white/blue colour line-up, which was fitted with the Red/grey interior trim.
In late 87, the Nova underwent a minor face-lift, which saw a new grill being fitted. Now all hatch and saloon models had the same grill, which was separate to the bumper, with exception to the SR, which now had an SR-specific grill design.
The SR also gained a new one-piece front bumper, with a new design. The older SR front bumper, was made in two pieces, with the top being a standard bumper, but with the extra sports valance attached underneath. The new design was now a one piece unit.
The other minor difference was the tailgate-lock on the hatch models, which now had a wide plastic grab handle design, in replace of the simple turn lock, fitted on older models.
The new lock design incorporated a push-button, meaning that you could close the boot, without it automatically locking, as the simple turn-lock design on the older models did.
The biggest thing to happen in 88, was the launch of the GTE, a 1.6 injected flag ship, to replace the SR as the top of the range sports model.
The GL model was dropped from the range and the L model was made more luxurious, to try and attempt the replace the GL. But, it was not as well equipped as the GL, with no central locking and no rev counter, but did have the Mosaic velour trim of the GL and was available as a 1.2 and 1.3 hatch and saloon.
The SR gained new interior trim, now seeing the use of Ronda cloth with velour bolsters, instead of the older Plaid-tartan. The standard wheel trims where now painted Metallic Anthracite.
88 also saw the launch of a 1.5 Turbo Diesel, which was only available with the Merit trim and as a 3-door hatch
Special edition "Flair" was launched on 01/01/89 available only in a 3-door hatch form.
Special edition "Pearl" was launched on 01/06/89 and was only available as a 4-door saloon with the 1.3 engine. This date also saw the launch of the special edition "Star" which was fitted with the 1.2 engine.
The GTE gained electric windows as standard from 01/09/89 and at the same time, the special edition "Sting" was launched.
This special model was only available in white, with colour-coded bumpers, grill and mirror housings. It also featured the same Ronda interior trim of the SR, including front sports seats, but unlike the SR, it had a one piece folding rear seat instead of a 60/40 split of the SR.
It also featured a sports clock-set with rev-counter, but without the oil-pressure and battery voltage gauges of the SR.
01/10/89 saw the introduction of the "Lean-Burn" 1.4 engine, with 75bhp. This was now fitted in the SR and other models instead of the 1.3 engine.
01/06/90 saw the launch of the special edition "Fling" and "Diamond" models, both of which were only available with the 1.2 engine and 3-door hatch body styles.
Both came with the same "Sherwood" cloth seat-trim, SR/GTE sports steering wheel and colour-coded mirror housings. The Fling was fitted with a tilt/remove sunroof, whilst the Diamond gained a slide/tilt sunroof, as well as 3-spoke SR/GTE alloy wheels, electric front windows and green tinted glass. (see Specials page for details
01/11/90 saw a full range review, with 1.0 "Trip" model now starting the line up, followed by a 1.0 Merit, 1.2 Merit.
01/11/90 saw the largest single change to the Nova range, with a major face lift.
The most obvious changes are external, with smaller head lights and indicators, a new grill and rounder, smoother bumpers.
The grill is very much in a sporty style, similar to the older SR/GTE, with a single hole, with small black slats, which is fitted to all MKII models.
The side rubbing strips where also smoothed out and made more flush to match the new smoother style.
The interior also saw a major face-lift and in staying with the new smooth look, the facia took on a whole new design, with round heater controls being one major visual difference.
The door cards on all models, now had fabric trim and larger door pockets which extend to the rear of the door and curve up to join the new design door handles/arm rests.
The 3 and 5 door hatch body styles continued, as did the 4-door saloon, but the 2-door saloon was discontinued from this date.
The range started with the "Trip" which was available as either a 1.0 3-door hatch or 4-door saloon.
The Merit and 1.5TD followed next in the range.
The Merit was available in a 4-door saloon version available as a 1.2 or 1.4i with "Cat.", the 3-door hatch as 1.0, 1.2 or 1.4i "Cat." and 5-door as a 1.2 or 1.4i "Cat."
The 1.5TD was only available as a 3-door hatch and featured the same spec. as the Merit, but gained a rev-counter.
The 5-speed gear-box was standard on the 1.4i and TD models.
The "Luxe" was the next model in the range, which replaced the traditionally named "L" model and was available in 1.2/1.4 4-door saloon, 1.2/1.4 3-door hatch and 1.2/1.4 5-door hatch variants, all with the 5-speed gear-box.
It featured 60/40 split folding rear-seat, luxurious "Sabadell" velour trim, full door-trims, extra side-window surround trim with black B-pillars and bright inserts in the bumpers.
It was also available with the "Comfort Pack" option, which added central locking, electric front windows and tinted glass.
The "Flair" was the next model in the range, which was available only in 3-door hatch form, with either the 1.2 or 1.4 engine.
This model was designed to be fun and have "Flair" which it certainly does, fitted with smart flush wheel trims, colour-coded tail-gate spoiler and mirror housings, plus green tinted glass.
On the inside, it was fitted with either red or blue "Zipper" fabric, with matching door trims and sun-visors (which had illuminated mirrors!). Even the dash controls for the heater, fan and air-direction where colour-matched in either red or blue!
The dash clocks featured a white-rimed speedo too for that added touch, along with sports steering wheel. This wheel was the same as the old design, but with a revised horn-push including new style badge.
The "SR" followed in the range, to put even more emphasis on the word "Flair".
In keeping with tradition, the SR kept the two-tone colour scheme of old, but lost the old grey wrap-round tailgate spoiler, in favour of the new colour-coded "lip" spoiler. The SR also gained colour-coded mirror housings, plus smart 14" steel wheels as standard, which featured Anthracite centres.
The interior was identical to the Flair using the same red or blue "Zipper" fabric trim, but it gained Sports front Seats and the sport clock-set with rev-counter, but for the first time in the life of the SR, it lost the oil-pressure and battery-voltage gauges!.
The sports steering wheel was the same design, but gained a colour-keys ring to compliment the interior trim.
The SR gained electric front windows as standard, to compliment the central locking.
The SR no longer had a unique front bumper design though and instead used the same one as fitted to normal models.
At this point, the SR was only available with the 1.4 Carburettor engine.
The SR gained a new, brighter interior, using Red/Grey or Blue/Grey "Zipper" fabric, depending on the exterior colour. This was now also extended to the door trims, whereas the older SR models had plane vinyl. The door handles where coloured to match and even the sun-visors got the "zipper" fabric to match, making the MKII SR interior, quite a colourful place to be!
The GTE model was now replaced by the GSi as the top of the range.
With the face lift, the GSi also gained the new smoother bumpers, with the rear now being the same as all other models, except for being colour coded.
The front bumper now though, was a unique design, with the lower edge angled out, to give a beefier look. This bumper also had a larger air in-take, with large slats.
The side-skirts as used on the GTE, were retained and left in grey as standard.
The new design tailgate spoiler as fitted to the Flair and SR, was also fitted on the GSi.
The GSi gained a whole new interior look, now much darker than the GTE, with a unique-to-the-nova-range, Black dashboard/facia and darker seat and door card trim, in "Rio" trim. This consists of a patterned centre panel in cloth, with Velour being used for the side bolsters, side sections and centre part of rear seat.
The sports steering wheel was the same as the SR design with the coloured ring, but this coloured ring was only available in red.
Unlike the SR which had lost the full instrumentation, the GSi retained the full clock-set including the oil-pressure and battery-voltage gauges.
Electric front windows, central locking and slide/tilt sunroof remained standard on the GSi as they were on the last GTE models.
The new 1.4i Cat. saw the addition of fuel injection to attempt to compensate for the inclusion of a Catalytic Converter, but despite the fuel injection, the power was down from 72 PS, to 60 PS!
01/05/91 saw the launch of the special edition "Spin" which was only available as a 1.0 3-door and was limited to a run of 3500 examples.
01/06/91 saw the launch of the special edition "Sola", which was a very only limited run model of only 200 examples!
These were fitted with a full-length fabric electric sunroof!
01/10/91 saw the launch of the special edition "Life", which was only available as a 3-door hatch and was limited to a run of 3500 examples.
This date also saw the launch of the None-Turbo Diesel model, with 50 bhp. This was available in both 3 and 5-door hatch variants.
The Merit TD was also now available with the 5-door body to join the present 3-door version and was fitted with a "Cat"!
From 01/02/92 all 1.2 models gained a single-point fuel-injection system, which also included a "Cat." This reduced power from 55bhp to 44bhp!
The SRi was born, which now used a multi-point fuel injection system and used a "Cat." and now produced 82bhp as standard.
01/03/92 saw the launch of the special edition "Fun" model, which was fitted with the new 1.2i engine and was available in both hatch and saloon variants.
01/06/92 saw the launch of the limited edition "Expression" model, which was available in either 3-door hatch or 4-door saloon body styles and was limited to 4000 examples.
It was only available with the 1.2i engine as standard and used the 4-speed gear box.
01/09/92 saw the GSi undergo a major engine revision, using a different fuel-injection system, along with a new ignition system amongst the changes.
From this point, my info is lacking slightly, so it's not entirely complete :(
If you can help fill the gaps, then please e-mail me ;)
Later in the Nova's life, an SX model was launched, which featured a black/grey and red striped interior trim.
This was available as a 1.2i and a Diesel as far as I know, but as said above, I'm lacking some info for these later models.
There was also a Luxe-plus model, which added alloy wheels, electric windows, central locking and tilt/remove sunroof to the normal Luxe model, which remained available.
I also understand, that the later SRi models where fitted with the better breaks and suspension of the GSi, due to the supply of the normal SRi breaks and suspension dwindling towards the end of production.
In 1993, Production Ceased and what did we get to replace it?.....the Corsa!
This name was now universally used throughout Europe.
This shape Corsa is still sold today in Australia, as the Holden Barina, whereas we now have the new face-lift version here in the UK and Europe. See the Picture Gallery for pics of the Holden version of the Corsa. You'll also find pics of the Chevrolet version, called the Monza!
It's down to personal choice, but I'd never buy a Corsa, for that reason, as I prefer the older, squarer shape of the Nova..and look at modern fashion anyway....the new Corsa is squared off, with sharp angles and points.....so in terms of styling fashion, the Nova is more modern!
That's my argument anyway lol!
