The top five city cars YOU should buy this year if you live in a concrete jungle
DRIVING in a city requires a very particular type of car if you ever want to find a parking space and avoid hefty running costs.
Any city car must be able to do a bit of everything in a tiny and value-for-money package.
You want it to be small so you can exploit tighter parking spaces and gaps in city traffic - a peppy engine and fast driving responses help, too.
You want the cabin to be comfortable, easy to use and pleasant to sit in, not least because you’re likely to spend many hours at the wheel.
And you want your car to be affordable to buy, run and repair - just in case your fellow drivers aren't as courteous as you.
And, a decent slice of style and equipment don’t hurt, either.
With the help of the expert reviewers at , here are the top five city cars on sale now.
Peugeot 108: The affordable one
Affordability really is the 108’s big trump card. Like many city cars, it’s a member of a mechanically identical trio, along with the Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo.
However, unlike its siblings, it’s offered with Peugeot’s excellent ‘Just Add Fuel’ finance package.
This builds three years’ worth of all your other motoring costs – tax, insurance, servicing and roadside assistance - into the single (and very affordable) monthly charge you pay for your car, leaving you to just get on and enjoy your motoring.
The small dimensions, light steering and peppy 1.0-litre engine also make it perfectly suited to city driving, and it has the funky looks that fashion-conscious city-dwellers demand.
VW up!: The posh one
Like the 108, the up! is part of a trio, one that also contains the Seat Mii and Skoda Citigo.
These cars are the best of their type to drive, mainly thanks to a super-smooth ride that keeps you comfortable no matter how badly battered the road surface is.
The light-but-responsive steering also helps make it fun to drive, while the eager three-cylinder engine is one of the smoothest and quietest of its type.
For us, though, it’s the up!’s quality and style that really sets it apart.
Our chosen High up! model has a cabin that looks and feels properly posh, and the sharp styling and desirable badge will also help protect your car’s resale value, which is good for your long-term running costs.
Renault Zoe: The electric one
Electric cars make more sense in the city than anywhere else.
Urban journeys tend to be shorter, meaning an electric car’s limited range is less of a problem, and cities also tend to have a higher concentration of public charging stations.
For us, the Zoe isn’t just one of the best electric cars for city dwellers, it’s one of the best electric cars period.
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First off, it’s smaller than most other electric offerings, which suits packed urban roads, but it’s still a proper car (the Twizy is smaller, but it has no doors, no boot and only two cramped seats).
It’s smooth, comfortable and easy to drive, it’s pleasant inside, and it also happens to have the longest range of any electric car this side of a Tesla.
So, if your journeys are short enough, you could go days or weeks without plugging in.
Dacia Sandero Stepway: The practical one
The great thing about the Dacia Sandero is that for less than the price of most teeny-tiny city cars, you can get a car that’s a good bit bigger and more practical, but still small enough to feel totally at home in the city.
That extra space, both in the passenger compartment and the boot, will come in very handy for small city-dwelling families.
We like the Stepway version because it has a lot more style than the regular Sandero hatchback thanks to SUV-esque design, and the jacked-up suspension means the ride is a little smoother, too.
It's not brilliant to drive in other ways, but there’s no arguing with the sheer amount of car you get for very little money.
Smart Fortwo Cabriolet: The open-top one
Everyone loves an open-top car, and this is one that’s based on the original urban runaround: the good old Smart car.
The latest version is as dinky as ever, meaning you can squeeze into parking spaces other drivers wouldn’t even consider to be spaces, and the super-tight turning circle also comes in very handy on claustrophobic city streets.
The turbocharged engines are peppy enough to get you rushing between lights with purpose, and despite the firm ride, you’ll love darting into seemingly impossible gaps between traffic.
Granted, it’s pretty expensive for what it is, but there aren’t many cars that deliver genuine open-top thrills at this money, and even fewer that are so well suited to the city.
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