Automotive Tips

Top Five Small Cars To Buy In The UK

If you’re on the lookout for a small and economical car, your options are pretty much endless.

From the Italian inspired 500 to the Spanish Mii and even the iconic British Mini, there are many fantastic models to choose from.

With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of the top five small cars that are available to buy today and are worth serious consideration.

We’ll kick things off with the aforementioned 500.

Fiat 500

The Fiat 500 is a modern-day, retro-inspired masterpiece and a massive seller for the Italian carmaker. Its popularity is something that’s highlighted by the fact that 1.5 million examples have now rolled off the production line.

Essentially a three-door, four-seat city going car, aside from its an obvious aesthetical charm, the Fiat 500 has proved immensely popular because of affordable car finance and leasing options, economical engines and ultimately, low running costs.

Boasting cutting edge technology and delivering up to 74.3 miles per gallon, its 0.9-litre Twinair engine is also a multi-awarding winning machine.

If you’re in the market for an aesthetically pleasing and economical city car, the 500 is a great choice, the only real downside being the fact that it boasts fairly basic spec as standard. If you want something with a bit more grunt, consider the Abarth 500.

Mini Hatchback

The Mini is somewhat of a British icon and has traditionally been a small three-door hatchback, but is now also available as a 5-door. Furthermore, it’s a remarkably stylish, practice and economical option if you’re intent on buying a small car.

Closely rivalling the aforementioned Fiat 500, the Mini boasts a reasonable spec as standard along with a whole host of colours and customisation options. There’s also great handling and reduced risk of depreciation when compared to other models is the small car segment.

Delve into the efficiencies of the Mini and you’ll discover a delivery of 61.4 mpg alongside 108g/km of CO2 emissions.

That’s for the entry-level 1.2-litre model, if you’re a little more efficiency there’s a diesel option that delivers a whopping 80.7mpg with 92g/km of CO2 emissions.

Skoda Citigo

For the money you’ll pay, the Skoda Citigo is stupidly cheap to buy car with low running costs and surprising levels of practicality, it was also named Best City Car of the year in 2013 by Auto Express.

In real-world terms the Citigo is good for an mpg of 50 with CO2 emissions just below 100k/gm. The cost of maintenance is also reasonable, especially in comparison to similar models from rival carmakers.

Essentially Skoda offers a pre-pay car servicing package for a price of £479, it covers you for three years and up to 30,000 miles.

The Skoda Citigo clearly has many plus points, but there are some little gripes too, firstly the car has a fairly basic kit and secondly a set of irritating pop-up windows to the rear.

SEAT Mii

SEAT, renowned for its production of cheap and cheerful cars that sell like hotcakes, introduced the Mii to the city car segment in 2012.

Delivered in three and five-door guise, the Mii is well built and deceptively spacious, but also cheap to buy and run. In fact, some of the best car leasing deals currently available are aimed at the Mii.

It’s most efficient option is the Mii Ecomotive, it delivers 68.9mpg, but only just manages to drop in under the 100g/km mark for CO2, kicking out 96g/km to be precise.

The Mii also benefits from low servicing and maintenance costs, replacement parts are relatively cheap too, as is the cost of insurance, depending on age and driving history, of course.

However, every car has its drawbacks and for the Mii, it’s a low-level kit as standard, though many optional extras are reasonably priced. There’s also a set of unfavourable pop-out windows on the five-door version.

Toyota Aygo

Distinctive, bold and compact in form, the Toyota Aygo is also fun and comfortable to drive, but not as refined at motorway driving as it perhaps could be. Nevertheless, the Aygo is credible and has undoubtedly been a big hit for the Japanese carmaker.

Available with a plethora of options, it gets 14inch wheels, projector headlamps, LED DRLS, twin-speaker audio and USB connectivity along with hill-start as standard.

The Toyota Aygo benefits from fuel economy and COS emissions of 69mpg and 95k/gm respectively.

However, when it comes to insurance, the Aygo proves somewhat more expensive to cover than its small car rivals.

What’s your small car of choice?