IF you are something of a shrinking violet who likes their car to quietly vanish when you pull up in the office car park then save yourself a couple of minutes of your life and stop reading now.

Vauxhall’s Corsa Sting has been designed with just one thing in mind – to grab as much attention as possible.

And that’s not too difficult to achieve when your starting point is lime-green paintwork, that glows with a chilling post-nuclear radiance and large, wide-boy, white-finished alloy wheels.

Add a pair of matching white exterior mirrors and two Starsky and Hutch-style white sports stripes and no one will miss you coming.

Starting from £8,995, the Corsa Sting is clearly aimed at younger drivers, so perhaps the fact that its under-bonnet potential is limited is no bad thing.

For while the car has all the looks of a bad boy, or girl, racer, this is no pocket rocket.

There is no terrifying turbo-charged power plant lurking under the bonnet, nor a raucous exhaust to upset the neighbours.

Power, in fact, comes from a 1.2-litre engine delivering a modest 85 horsepower, which is tuned for economy not power.

It is mated to a five-speed manual gearbox, which needs a deal of work to get the best out of the engine.

What that means in practice is that this Corsa, with its speed-sensitive power steering, is perfectly suited to cruising gently around town and trotting along on cross-country roads.

Under the garish exterior everything is perfectly sensible Corsa.

Quiet, reasonably refined and well screwed together, you know exactly what you are getting in a car that is a near-permanent fixture in the UK’s top-three best sellers’ list.

Instrumentation is clear and switchgear is simple and straightforward, if starting to look its age. A decent level of equipment ranges from air conditioning and CD/MP3 player, to an aux-in socket.

The new Corsa features a signature chrome bar, carrying the new Griffin badge, stretching across the front grille, while a re-styled front bumper with a more prominent, wider lower grille gives the Corsa a bit of a cheeky grin.

Framing the Corsa’s face are so-called ‘eagle-eye’ headlamps, which have also made an appearance on the Meriva. The units have a chrome finish and include daytime running lights as standard. New chrome-finished fog lamps and housings complete the picture at the front.

For peace of mind, Vauxhall’s warranty, for the first owner, is valid for the lifetime of the vehicle up to a maximum of 100,000 miles.

Pound for pound, there are few hatchbacks on the road that will turn as many heads.

What those heads might be thinking about you is another matter.

At a glance:

Insurance group: Two

Fuel consumption (Combined): 51.4mpg

Top speed: 107mph

Length: 400cm/157.5in

Width: 171.3cm/67.5in

Luggage capacity: 10cu ft

Fuel tank capacity: 9.9 gallons/45 litres

CO2 emissions: 129g/km

Warranty: 100,000 miles