SEAT Arosa 1.0

Lets be honest you buy a car like this because of its price- £6500 to be exact. Everything else is something of an after thought. Yet do yourself a favour and listen to those voices of doubt.

Seat who are owned by the German car manufacturer Volkswagen, have the advantage of using the same components to put together their cars, basically rebadging Volkswagen's cars as their own. In this case the Seat Arosa shares the same chassis and other bits and pieces as the Volkswagon Lupo, but costs around £500 less. In truth you might as well have the Seat if you limit yourself to one of the two cars.

But both, are not what you would call practical. The boot capacity of the Seat is 130 litres. The 2005 Kia Picanto has a capacity of 157 litres and that is not exactly a saloon. So the shopping usually ends up sprawled all over the back seats. However where you lose boot space, you gain in rear leg room, which the Seat has plenty of. Six footers might struggle but for kids its plenty. The Euro N-Cap crash test gave the Arosa a 3-star rating and though not bad for a super mini, the most recent Ford Fiesta scores a 4-star rating, costs around £8000 and is a much better drive.

Since the Seat has a tiny engine its fuel consumption is fantastic with 35-45 miles per gallon meaning fill-ups don't happen very often and its tank size confirms that. Though a 1.0 engine doesn't fill you with confidence as you head for a motorway. Eventually achieving 0-62 in a woe-ful 17.7 seconds, you need a big run-up to get anywhere near the speed limit, which means you need a big bag of balls when you dive in front of a juggernaut doing 55 mph. And if that hits you your not exactly safe.

Inside the Seat is decent enough, though feeling a little plastically the quality of the materials flatters the price tag. On a cold morning the heating is eager to make you feel like your back in bed and the ventilation from the air conditioning is ample for the supermini class.

In a cramped town or city, the Seat is nippy and nimble with feather-light steering and a light, short-throw gear box, which makes parking and bumper to bumper jams a doddle.

Yet on an open road, the car is not a rewarding experience with extreme body roll and the steering gives absoloutely no feedback. On occasion the clutch is quick to over heat and become sticky too.

If you want a plain, both cute yet aggressive (strangely) looking supermini with a worthy price tag, look no further. But do not buy this if you want anything like some sort of rewarding driving experience.