City Cars
FIRST
Fiat 500
22 variants
from £9,960 to £16,856
Fiat's modern day 500 is our favourite city car of the moment, blending off-the-dial desirability with an affordable price tag. Plenty of customers have bought one based on its cute looks alone - Fiat had a year-long waiting list before the 500 even reached the showrooms - but this chic city car is supremely talented in other areas too. Its classy looking cabin is spacious and functional and there's plenty of space in the rear for young children. A first-rate range of small engines are available, notably the 1.3-litre Multijet diesel, which offers fantastic 60mpg+ fuel economy. The rev-happy petrol alternatives provide the most amusing drive and the standard 500 handles adequately - although not well enough to satisfy the keenest drivers. Enthusiasts should look to the more expensive Abarth 500 hot hatch. The 500's built in Fiat's Polish factory, alongside its forthcoming sister model the Ford Ka. This mechanically similar Ford is likely to offer better handling than the 500 and will be very competitively priced. Fiat's UK dealer network has also come in for some criticism regarding its customer service. So the baby Ford could snatch the Fiat's crown when it's launched. But this aside, no other city car can touch the 500 right now. The only problem is the lengthy waiting list.
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SECOND
Hyundai i10
5 variants
from £8,345 to £9,745
n the past, people bought small Hyundais on price and just put up with the fact that they were not very good cars. Today, the i10 is still just as keenly priced as Hyundais ever were, but the i10 is light-years ahead of the old Amica and Atoz. Despite the low prices, equipment levels are high, with air conditioning standard across the range, and it offers a surprising amount of passenger space for its size. The most economical versions also manage to get below 100 g/km of CO2, so offer free road tax and free entry to central London. Driving the i10 is no chore - it is decently quiet and refined, although the lower-powered versions are no ball of fire. The i10 might be cheap, but it is not cheerless.
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THIRD
Toyota iQ
6 variants
from £10,655 to £13,825
Perhaps the cleverest car launched in years, the Smart-sized Toyota iQ is the world's smallest four-seater. Ingenious Japanese engineers have packaged this tiny model to maximise interior space. The front passenger seat is mounted further forward than the driver's, allowing a full sized rear seat and a jump seat to fit in behind. You'll squeeze three adults and a small child in the iQ with no luggage; but this is a car that's less than three metres long. Like a Smart, you can park the iQ nose-on to the kerb. Also like a Smart, the short wheelbase also means the handling is pretty woeful and the 68bhp 998cc engine struggles on the motorway. However the iQ does come very well equipped, is cheap to run and - as it's a Toyota - should be very reliable. And two more seats make the Smart seem redundant. The problem is the price; this is an expensive proposition for a tiny city runabout. But if space is at a premium and you need a genuinely small car with four seats, this is the one to go for.
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