MCC Smart & pulse

dinky car.. but totally awesome... only had it a week,( i have acquired it while a friend is on holiday) but absolutely love it!

costs only £18 to fill up and it does a good 400+ miles to the tank built quality is awesome; doors and boot shut with a nice clunk and sound solid.

just getting to the end of the breaking in zone (between 400-900 miles) and can start to floor it? it doesn?t accelerate as fast as a 2 litre engine but does very nicely up to its top speed of 84mph (limited).

cabin area is huge, bigger than most hatchback cars i?ve had before, with the engine in the back, which surprisingly doesn?t intrude on conversations in the car.

gear stick is a simply affair with a + and a ? sign neutral and reverse. (6 gears)
there is a little arrow on the display, which recommends whether you should change up or down a gear for optimum fuel efficiency which you can ignore if you want to. nice feature is that it drops into 1st gear when for example you come to a stop at traffic lights. its impossible to stall it, computer will drop down a car if you try!

should you be concerned about safety it has loads of clever features, the engine being in the back and built around the car in the floor space means that you wont get crushed by it. the wheels protrude out slightly so its not possible for a car to impact on the side without hitting one or more tyres, thus the impact isn?t directly on the doors. also it has abs and an intelligent traction and stability control system that monitors each wheel, nice!

recommendations go for the convertible luggage/shopping net with bar option, otherwise you will find that anything you put in the boot will crash around and end up in with you! plus the extra sound system upgrade, as the standard one is pretty bad!

Economically speaking it gives around 55 mpg, low group 4 insurance rating; tiny 600cc engine falls well below the reduced road tax threshold making it even cheaper to own.

Performance wise the jerky 'soft touch' sequential transmission needs to be worked hard to extract reasonable performance; engines are artificially restricted to 84 mph - but that feels fast enough; fuel economy also suffers if it's driven enthusiastically. At the end of the day if you only have one friend it is ideal!