DervMan’s Pick: City Cars

Manufacturers would have you believe that the current breed of city cars represent a growing niche, but this is nonsense. These cars are around the same size as an early to mid 1980s supermini. Priced under a typical supermini, city cars are so named because of their small size, which makes them handy for city dwellers who rarely venture out of the urban limits, or as a second car. Some are rather limited in abilities, but some have surprisingly good motorway legs.

There are two distinct types of city car: those designed around the maximum possible space for four adults, and those that either don’t bother with a rear seat, or have one but it’s rather small. Typical examples include the Daewoo Matiz, Daihatsu Move and Suzuki Wagon R for the former, and the Ford Ka, Volkswagen Lupo and Smart City Coupé for the latter.

All cars in this class have some serious shortcomings, but where these lie does depend on the individual car you look at. Those cars optimised for people are rather tall, but this can give them stability problems (or at best, poor handling), and of course, it makes them look like telephone boxes on wheels. Indeed, Suzuki’s Wagon R (the the Vauxhall version, the Agila) look particularly ridiculous! However, if you want to move four people across the city in reasonable comfort, spending as little as possible, these cars do make sense. Or if you have back problems and need to sit rather upright, again, they are sensible.

Nevertheless, as an all-rounder I wouldn’t recommend these cars. They are usually too compromised once speeds pick up - using the Daihatsu Move as an example, they suffer from lots of engine and wind noise at a motorway cruise. Efficient and economical they may be, but motorway cruisers, no I don’t think so.

Examples such as the Ford Ka, Fiat Siecento and Volkswagen Lupo are compromised in different areas. These look more like proper cars, but have less useable interior space. They tend to be better motorway cars because of their lower stance and superior aerodynamics.