Looking at a small, practical, but nippy car. Easy to park in limited space.

Fiest ST or Mitsubishi Colt seem to fit the bill, the Mitsubishi being slightly more practical and better on the fuel consumption. Good all-round performance. Not too common either.

Can pick up an 05 with about 50k for £5000ish. Any other alternatives worth considering? Should I steer clear?

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carreviews/firstdrives/55328/mitsubishi_colt.html

Easy to park in limited space.

that's exactly why we got one – no other **** would fit in front of our house lol!

I looked at the Fiesta but went for the Colt because of the space inside – tghe Colt has more room for kids in the back *and* you can take the rear seats out eitehr completely or on a 60/40 split so there's lots of room in the back for bikes etc.

It's nippy around town, usually turns around 40+mpg for the petrol version. On dual carriageways/motorways it's ok but not very exciting, sits at 70ish reasonably happy but a bit noisily. Very reliable.

I got a 06 one sub 20k for four grand. It was a total bargain – the one you mention for five grand sounds a good price too, I'd maybe try and get a couple hundred tho.

Wow, that really is bargaintastic!

Cheers, useful info. I do a bit of mixed driving, so motorway driving is a factor to consider. Will see if I can do a test drive down a dual carriageway.

Wondering about noise levels. Also, What's it like for overtaking on the motorway? Does it struggle with the small engine? It's unlikely to carry more than 1-2 people.

Thanks 🙂

Overtaking on the motorway is okay at a steady state – it doesn't really have any top end grunt. It doesn't feel uncomfortable at higher speeds but I've never really found it to surge ahead at speed particularly well. That might be my technique as I've only been driving since November ('mature' driver rather than boy racer, heh.)

My missus finds the front roomy but then she's only 5'3" so she would do 🙂 I've tried out the passenger seat and found it fine (6'0) but have never sat in it for a journey so couldn't comment there.

If it was for a run-around i'd say snap it up but for mixed driving i'd say try and get a dual-c/way test drive like you said. The noise isn't a problem with a Cd in the player….

Small, quick, oh and a diesel………..

There won't be many decent fabiavrs around at that price, especially the limited edition close out model in the picture above. I have a normal vrs and they are fast, 55+mpg and easy to park, fairly tough as well and drive like a much bigger car.