Best city cars to buy 2024
There are plenty of appealing city cars to choose from, so here’s our guide to the best urban runabouts
The best city cars have always offered manoeuvrability, value for money and low running costs, but now these compact cars also offer similar levels of tech and refinement to models that are much bigger in both size and price. Our road-testing experts have driven every city car on sale in the UK, and we’ve rounded up the very best ones to buy right here.
Best city cars to buy
- Hyundai i10
- Kia Picanto
- Dacia Spring
- MINI Cooper
- Suzuki Swift
- Fiat 500e
- Toyota Aygo X
- Abarth 500e
- Citroen Ami
- Suzuki Ignis
1. Hyundai i10
- Prices from £16,000
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Our two-time City Car of the Year is the perfect example of just how much this segment has evolved over the years. The Hyundai i10 is still a tiny car that’s an absolute doddle to drive and park, but it’s riddled with the sort of appealing qualities that you’d expect to find in a much bigger and pricier model.
Standard kit on the i10 includes alloy wheels, a touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, air-conditioning and cruise control, but a midlife update saw the introduction of even more goodies. These include a digital instrument panel, mood lighting for the cabin and some additional active safety and assistance systems.
All good stuff, but none of that is what makes the i10 such a good car for conquering city traffic – its light steering, tiny turning circle and dinky dimensions do that. It’s actually one of the few models that are fun to drive in tight spots. But leave the skyscrapers in your rear-view mirror and the i10 is grown up and refined enough to take on more open roads.
The i10’s maturity means it doesn’t follow the apparent trend of offering numerous personalisation options. Instead, the i10 is only available in a five-door form that highlights its focus on usability, offering as much space as many cars in the larger supermini class, despite being less than 3.7 metres long. Along with impressive practicality, solid build quality and some decent materials help the cabin feel more upmarket.
2. Kia Picanto
- Prices from £15,500
- Longest standard warranty
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The latest Kia Picanto is good to drive, has a big-car kit list, is spacious and well made. The list of improvements goes on, too, because the latest version features a higher quality and better equipped interior and more space, plus it offers a surprisingly grown-up driving experience.
The refreshed Picanto’s looks are inspired by the Kia EV9 electric SUV. The interior is largely the same as the pre-facelift model, though, as is the engine line-up which consists of a 62bhp 1.0-litre three-cylinder or a 1.2 four-cylinder unit that produces 77bhp.
A host of driver-assistance tech is offered for the Picanto, too, including forward collision-avoidance assist, blind-spot collision-avoidance assist, lane-keeping assist, driver attention warning and lane-following assist. So, whether you're travelling in town or on the motorway, the Picanto is reassuringly safe to drive.
3. Dacia Spring
- Prices from £14,995
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As more and more of the UK’s big cities turn to emissions-based charging to help improve their air quality, a fully electric city car makes a lot of sense. Of course, many EVs carry much higher starting prices than their combustion-powered counterparts, but the Dacia Spring has arrived to break this pattern. In fact, it’s currently the cheapest full-sized electric model that you can buy.
While Dacia’s cost-saving means the Spring is quite humble when it comes to its appearance and features, there’s still a decent helping of modern essentials, including air-conditioning and cruise control. The 140-mile maximum battery range may not seem like much at first glance, but it should be plenty for darting around urban streets.
4. MINI Cooper
- Prices from £23,100
- Best driving experience
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You could say that the original Mini was a city car pioneer, and the latest MINI Cooper continues this legacy of being a small, affordable and appealing model that’s also fun to drive. It feels quite fancy inside, too, thanks to its soft materials and circular OLED screen.
The MINI Cooper is one of the larger models on this list, coming close to cars in the supermini sector above, but it’s still compact enough to easily tuck away into puny parking spaces. Being a bit bigger also means there’s a decent amount of space for four passengers, although the 200-litre boot is a bit stingy.
If your city’s streets are covered by emissions-based charging, you won’t need to worry because the MINI Cooper is available as an electric car. Opt for this variant and you’ll have up to 250 miles of range on tap, depending on your chosen spec.
5. Suzuki Swift
- Prices from £18,700
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While the Suzuki Swift technically sits in the supermini sector, its efficiency and price are much more similar to those of a city car. In other words, you’ll get the same small running costs but with the added bonus of more interior space.
Every version of the Swift has an official WLTP combined economy figure of more than 55mpg, thanks to its mild-hybrid powertrain. It’s certainly not the last word in performance, but you can still have some fun behind the wheel, thanks to the small Suzuki’s low kerb weight. There’s even the option of four-wheel drive, which is uncommon on a car this size.
6. Fiat 500e
- Prices from £25,000
- Best for efficiency
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The Fiat 500e is exclusively available as an electric car, but there are still plenty of nods to this retro model’s heritage, such as the lack of a traditional grille at the front. Step inside the 500e and the interior’s classic overall look remains, but with some larger dimensions and thoroughly modern materials and tech.
Standard kit is generous, with a 10.25-inch touchscreen, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, 16-inch alloy wheels, keyless entry, automatic wipers, cruise control and climate control all included. The battery tech is rather impressive for a small EV, too. Opt for the larger 42kWh pack and the 500e can achieve up to 199 miles of range between charges. It can also be rapid-charged from 10 to 80 per cent in around half an hour.
7. Toyota Aygo X
- Prices from £16,100
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After discontinuing the standard Aygo, Toyota revamped its pint-sized city car with a new crossover-style look, along with a number of upgrades both inside and out. The Toyota Aygo X sits higher, which allows for a better view of the road – one of the main advantages of a crossover – and it does a good job of soaking up bumps in the road for a slightly more civilised driving experience, too.
The Aygo X is pretty striking to look at but, while it stands out with its bulky bumpers and ride height, its roots in the previous Aygo are still evident. It’s noticeably roomier than the standard Aygo was in the front, though, and the extra length has also allowed Toyota to increase boot size to 231 litres.
The interior of the Aygo X is vibrant and manages to be fairly attractive, with flashes of colour and plastics that don’t feel overly cheap. All trim levels have features such as Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a reversing camera and adaptive cruise control. Opt for the Edge or Exclusive trim and you can even have a folding canvas roof.
8. Abarth 500e
- Prices from £31,100
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If you like the fashionable charm of the Fiat 500e but have something of a mischievous streak, the Abarth 500e will be the electric city car for you. The Abarth shares its general appearance with the Fiat, but adds some much brighter paintwork, a more powerful 150bhp motor and an external speaker that attempts to replicate the pops, crackles and bangs of Abarth’s petrol-powered models.
It has plenty of character, but the Abarth 500e is still a city car at heart, rather than an all-out hot hatchback. There’s more than enough power to put a smile on your face between the traffic lights, but you’ll still have a claimed 164-mile battery range at your disposal.
9. Citroen Ami
- Prices from £7,700
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Technically speaking, the Citroen Ami is a quadricycle rather than a fully-fledged car, and you’ll probably be able to tell the obvious differences just by looking at it. It has two seats, two doors, 46 miles of battery range and a price tag that undercuts just about every other four-wheeled vehicle on the road.
No sane individual is about to use the Citroen Ami as a motorway cruiser, but it’s on the city streets where this tiny EV starts to make sense. Its compact shape makes the Ami incredibly easy to manoeuvre and park, and it costs almost the same to run as a moped, but with the added bonus of a roof. For those who just want simplistic, cheap urban motoring for frequent short journeys, the Ami could be the ideal solution.
10. Suzuki Ignis
- Prices from £18,000
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Much like the Toyota Aygo X, the Suzuki Ignis is another SUV-inspired city car. Suzuki has gone one step further than Toyota here, though, because you have the option of four-wheel drive.
The unique boxy shape also makes the Ignis very versatile and spacious, and it’s nippy and nimble around town. Suzuki’s generous specification means it’s packed with kit, with even the most basic model featuring DAB audio and Bluetooth.
The interior ambience is a little less sophisticated than some of its rivals, with some of the plastics feeling brittle and scratchy, and that shortage of refinement is also evident if you take the Ignis on a run out of town. If you want one you’ll need to be quick, though, because the Ingis is being axed to make way for Suzuki’s upcoming electric cars.
Need a bit more space? Check out our list of the best superminis to buy…
