If we're being brutally honest - and when aren't we? - the Corsa is probably the supermini Top Gear has got least excited about over the past year. Renault's new Clio ticked a lot of boxes, as did the imperfect but still impressive Peugeot 207. There was also a spot of pre-launch fervour about what Fiat decided to call the Grande Punto. Bigger it was, and much better looking. Oh, and remarkably cheap.

Those are three brand new cars from major European players that the marketing monkeys at Vauxhall will have been eyeing up with increasing trepidation. Chuck a facelifted and typically solid Volkswagen Polo into the mix and you have something close to the exact scientific formula for sleepless nights in Luton town.

But having negotiated the M1 roadworks to GM's sooty foothold in the UK, the new Corsa's proud parents seemed to me to be feeling distinctly chipper about things.

"How does it feel to be the first journalist to drive the first UK Corsa on British roads?" asks Vauxhall's PR chief, who, it transpires, will be riding shotgun throughout.

It's still just a Corsa, isn't it? I say something about excitement.

"Don't crash it, will you?" pipes up the man on reception as we leave. "It's the only one we've got."

Well, there goes Plan A.

This is a bit of a privilege, though. The Corsa we're now walking towards, inconspicuous among a faintly depressing sea of like-fronted cars in the Vauxhall visitors' car park, has been specially prepped by Opel in Germany and rushed over here to make our deadline.

It's got dealer plates on it (hence the legal necessity of my highly official passenger) and it's so fresh from the tree that there's still bright orange anti-scuff tape plastering bits of the interior.

On a first walk round, two things hit you. First, it's very different from the old Corsa, but second it's still very familiar Vauxhall.

The reason for this seems to be that the designers have finally, utterly dispensed with the over-evolved outline of the old car in favour of something that looks distinctly like a foetal version of the Astra. Not fully formed yet, but clearly sharing most of the vital DNA.

This can only be a good thing too, not only because the Astra is a better-looking car than the umpteenth evolution of the old Corsa would ever have been, but also because it carries with it a certain big car cachet.

The five-door model has a neat, understated profile and Astra-like rear end, giving nothing away about its relatively compact dimensions. In fact, the only thing that really betrays this is are some ludicrously outsized headlights, bigger than those on the Astra and even the Vectra.