Yahoo Autos £15k heroes: What is Britain's best cheap car?
How much does a new car cost nowadays? Any car will do: transport, freedom, four wheels, an engine and some seats. After the couple of years we’ve just had, I wouldn’t blame anyone who needed to look it up.
At the end of 2019, the cheapest car was less than £8000. There was a Vauxhall Corsa on the price list for less than £12,000, a Ford Focus for less than £20,000 and a BMW 3 Series for little more than £30,000. Now look at us. In another four years, who knows what a value supermini might cost – or if you will still be able to buy one at all.
If you like cheap, simple, versatile and efficient motoring, then, now is time to secure some. And if you are wondering what’s within reach – assuming that you want to spend around £15,000 in cash or £200 per month on a typical personal finance scheme (10% down, a three-year term and a conspicuously high interest rate: you know the drill) – you might be surprised how few the options already are.
There are only eight cars left on the UK market at that price or under it – and we’ve got five of them right here.
Unfortunately, Fiat’s UK distributor doesn’t have any Panda demonstrators right now, Volkswagen’s doesn’t keep any Ups and we didn’t think it worth including two slightly different Dacias in the same test just for the sake of completeness.
So it’s the Citroën C3, Dacia Sandero, Hyundai i10, Kia Picanto and MG 3 we have here to settle the question of who makes the best cheap car on sale today.
The truth is, neither the manufacturers nor the dealers are much interested in selling or promoting cars this cheap any more, and they’re growing less so, while buyers’ interest, as they see it, has migrated elsewhere.
As you’re about to read, though, bargain-basement motoring can be surprisingly fun, pleasant and practical, and remarkably convenient in 2023. Liberating, then, in more ways than one.
Meet the contenders: Dacia Sandero
Even in isolation and even today, the Sandero feels like an awful lot of car for the money. That’s its shtick, of course. Really inspect it, though, and drive it back to back with its price-matched rivals, and it seems even more brilliant value.
The MG 3 isn’t too far off it for cabin space but has a boot some 20% smaller, while the C3 definitely offers less practicality. The i10 and Picanto feel much smaller – because they are – yet cost the same. But the Sandero can handle adults in the second row, taller folk up front and folded buggies in the boot – and leave a bit of living space around them all. Superminis never used to do that.
What you’re looking at isn’t, in fact, the cheapest version of it. Because the headroom existed within our £15,000 budget, I borrowed a car in Expression trim (Dacia says very few customers plump for entry-level Essential, Britain’s cheapest car at £13,795), so it came with an equipment level running way beyond austerity spec.
An 8.0in touchscreen system featuring Apple CarPlay (simple, brilliantly laid out and easy to use), cruise control, parking sensors, a reversing camera, electric windows, electric mirrors and some attractive, textured, foam-backed cloth on the dashboard just to break up the other wise plasticky expanse. It’s a perfectly pleasant driving environment, with every fitted convenience you really need.
It has big-car qualities on the road, too. Smart, secure handling, a comfortable ride throughout the speed range, gearing long enough for 60mpg tour ing economy and the turbocharged torque to make easy drivability in spite of that.
It could be a bit more fun, truth be told, and it’s a little way off some cars at the price in terms of apparent quality. There’s just a hint of empty biscuit tin about its rolling refinement and the reverberant clang of the doors as they close.
But just how can Dacia make a full-size supermini for less money than others charge for a city car? How can it do so without making the end result seem cheap, in so many ways? It’s a real conjuring trick. And long may it continue.
Dacia Sandero 1.0 TCe Expression
Price £14,795 Engine 3 cyls, 999cc, turbocharged, petrol Power 90bhp at 4600-5000rpm Torque 118lb ft at 2100-3750rpm Gearbox 5-spd manual, FWD Kerb weight 1072kg 0-62mph 12.2sec Top speed 109mph Economy 53.3mpg CO2, tax band 119g/km, 28% Insurance group 14
Kia Picanto
It's hard to write about enthusiastically driving a Picanto without sounding like Sniff Petrol’s parody motoring writer Troy Queef (“the Picanto is a bitch, and I spanked it”), but here we are.
Tootling through a Wiltshire village a few miles from today’s meeting point, a marked police Volvo XC90 pulls out ahead of me. When the road becomes a national speed limit, the big SUV takes off, so I figure I will gently follow its pace. But several minutes of thrashing the Picanto later, it has pulled long out of sight.
There aren’t many cars in which you can give so much effort and have so much fun yet make such unobtrusive progress.
This Picanto starts at £13,695, with ‘honey bee’ yellow paint its only non-cost option. There’s no air conditioning, the door mirrors adjust manually, as do the rear windows, and if you’re used to reading about large touchscreens, know that the infotainment system here is proudly presented on a 3.8in monochrome display with buttons.
But there’s Bluetooth and digital radio, and it only takes a moment to flick the temperature gauge through its whole range without taking your eyes from the road. If it could cool air as well as warm it (air-con is reserved for the £14,445 2 model), it would have all the equipment I needed.
And I would enjoy it. Fine, 66bhp isn’t much to be getting on with. But as a result of the equipment sparsity, its 3.6-metre length and its naturally aspirated 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine, its kerb weight is just 935kg.
Most sub-tonne cars are fun to some extent, and the Picanto is more so than most. It wants 13.8sec to get to 62mph and will do no more than 100mph yet, as with the i10, has what I think is the best manual gearshift in production. Plus it steadfastly refuses to do less than 50mpg.
All winners, these cars.
Kia Picanto 1.0 1
Price £13,695 Engine 3 cyls in line, 998cc, petrol Power 66bhp at 5500rpm Torque 7 1lb ft at 3750rpm Gearbox 5-spd manual, FWD Kerb weight 935kg 0-62mph 13.8sec Top speed 100mph Economy 56.5mpg CO2, tax band 109g/km, 26% Insurance group 14
MG 3
When it come to bang for your buck, the MG 3 is the undisputed king of our cut-price quintet. It’s not the cheapest car here, but the British-engineered, Chinese-built hatchback easily beats all comers for pound-stretching showroom appeal. Simply put, few cars give you so much kit for so little cash.
The car in our pictures is the £16,020 Exclusive Nav range-topper, but even if you go for the basic £14,320 Excite you get air-con, four electric windows, electric mirrors, parking sensors and a leather steer ing wheel. Hell, it even gets a slick-looking touchscreen infotainment system that packs Apple CarPlay. There are cars costing twice as much that aren’t as generously specified as this.
What’s more, the neatly proportioned 3 doesn’t look like a bargain-bin special: Excite trim’s diamond-cut alloys, LED daylight-running lights and a subtle rear spoiler add visual sparkle.
It's spacious too, nearly matching the supermini-sized Sandero for family-friendly accommodation. And while the interior plastics are low-rent, the cabin is smartly designed and solidly built.
However, peel back the tinsel and you discover that the 3 is well off the pace dynamically. The ageing 105bhp 1.5-litre four-pot makes it as swift as the Sandero, but the engine becomes harsh and breathless when revved and has a thirst for unleaded (we struggled to hit 40mpg). A notchy five-speed gearbox and driveline shunt that forces you to really finesse the pedals for smooth urban assaults are further demerits.
