Thinking about changing my venerable 2nd car (VW Bora) for something more fun.

My use of the car can change daily from not being used for a week or two, through regular cold morning trips to the station (4 miles) or the occasional longer motorway trip.

I rarely carry passengers, and would like a combined consuption of around 40mpg. Must have usual refinements (aircon / CD etc.) and would prefer leather steering wheel and a front central armrest (this may be the limiting factor!)

Budget would be around £10k, and my current choices would be (not I haven't driven any of these, and in no particular order):

Fabia vRS

Clio Renaultsport (not sure budget would stretch to a Clio 200)

Twingo Renaultsport

Suzuki Swift Sport

Fiat Panda 100

Has anybody had experience of these or even suggest something else?

Ta

Swift Sport!

+1 for the Swift Sport. Suzuki currently rate tops for reliability.

Friend at work is driving her brother's Panda 100hp for a little while.

Pluses - Looks nice, especially in grey.

Fun to drive

Practical

Minuses - Tank is ridiculously small

Not that economical which is a pain with point 1

Plastics a bit cheap and scratchy

Not that fast

Overall she does like it, would be happy to drive own it as long as most journeys were short and it's generally worth what you pay for it. But wouldn't swap her 2002 Golf derv for it.

Arnold Clark up here was selling them new for about £8k

I have some experience of the Panda 100

Pros

- Good fun to drive and I've let lots of people drive mine and all have left it with a grin on their face

- Practical - will sit 4 adults in fair comfort (was quite surprised by that when I tried it), although it is still a super-mini so you might not be able to take their 4-suitcases of luggage

- 100bhp/ton with a nice torquey engine and 6-speed gear box means it doesn't run out of puff until around 115 (GPS) and it'll overtake most things without a problem on A and B roads. It has a fairly stiff neutral setup too so there's minimal roll through corners and lift-off oversteer if you want

- Running costs are dirt cheap, 95 RON fuel, service interval is every 12k and the services tend to be fairly wallet friendly, even at main dealers, only has 15 inch wheels so tyres are cheap

- Economy - can easily see 40+mpg, although if you thrash it everywhere, it'll be less - mine currently averaging around 37mpg but then I don't really drive for economy

- Equipment - Lots of stuff as standard including bluetooth headset, full digital climate control, full MFD, etc, etc

- Build quality - the first car to break the Fiat mould and be well built and reliable

Cons

- Driving position takes a little getting used to

- Ride can be a bit firm for some people - I've had people mention that it's "rock hard", etc, etc but people who've passengered with me have commented how composed it is

- Fuel tank is only 30-odd litres which means while it doesn't cost you a lot for a fill-up, you'll be visiting them every few hundred miles

- Not a great tuning scene if that's your thing and FiatForum is well ... er ... interesting

I've had mine since March last year now and covered 36k (enthusiastic) miles. For 8k brand new, I'm not sure there's much that touches it and I'm struggling to find something that will replace it when year 3 of the warranty is up that ticks all the same boxes.... FWIW, when I was looking, I ruled out the Swift and the Micra 160SR. The Swift was a nice car, but running costs were "big" car without the swift having the big car performance. The Micra I ruled out because the 3 dealers I visited were cr@p and told me the 1.6 was the same as the 1.2 to drive and if I wanted to drive one, I'd have to commit to buying it

If you're anywhere near me, you're welcome to come out for a spin in it

Chris

There was a fithgear ages ago with all the small supermini's and they were doing some performance testing.

The Swift came 4th (out of 4), twingo 3rd, the Fiat 500 came first,

Everyone was saying how they loved the swift. If its good enough for Tiff!!!!

Mum has a normal, 1.4 auto, and its still quite a fun little car. Nippy, and quite pleasant inside.