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Ford Fiesta overall verdict

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The sort of car people buy for their daughter but then steal back when she’s out
Our buying tip

We like the Fiesta. Lots. If it's a supermini you want, buy one

Ford gets the blue oval back on top - this is a fantastic little car with a driving experience beyond the class

Comfort

Given that the Fiesta isn't so small anymore its no surprise that the ride and comfort quotient has grown as well. There's loads of space here - and the car simply feels like it has managed to grab the waft from a car in the class above. It works, simply as that.
Performance

There's no hot ST at the moment - but there will be. Until then you get the whole range of smaller engines from the Fordrange. The pick at the moment is the 1.6-litre petrol. There will also be a 99g/km ‘Econetic' that should perform well but not kill so many daisies.
Cool

The three-door looks genuinely brilliant - especially in some of the new bold colours. The five-door doesn't look half bad either. Just one problem - the Fiesta name just hasn't got the barside pizzazz you might want.
Quality

The new central dash arrangement is a bit silver, but not many will complain about the quality at this price point. Ford have worked on that big car feel and the Fiesta does a grand job of not feeling cheap even though it is.
Handling

The best bit about the new Ford Fiesta is that it drives so much better than it has any right to. Turn in is crisp, the chassis is capable of way, way much more power and you can have fun even with the modest amounts of grunt on offer from the current range.
Practicality

The Fiesta has very thick c-pillars and a small rear windscreen, so you might want those £200 optional parking sensors. Other than that its on the pace for space, but not exceptional.
Running costs

The 99g/km Econetic will be a real cheapie - it even pays no tax. Other than that, insurance across the board will be cheap, the cars are generally very frugal and the Fiesta is easy to fix and small cars are ever more popular. You're on to a winner all round.

Peugeot RCZ driven

£26,380 Driven April 2013

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The thing with midlife facelifts is that they can often go awry. Some designer gets a bit heavy-handed, and, before you know it, the car's become a caricature of itself. Luckily, Peugeot had the foresight to make a hash of the original RCZ, so all they've had to do is put that right.

Not a total hash, you understand. No, it was just the grille, a gaping great maw filled out with a boxer's gumshield of a bumper. Now there's a much more acceptable two-tier arrangement, upper and lower separated by a slice of body colour. And that's it. All is aligned. You can forget about the old one's conk and focus on what a handsome, uniquely proportioned coupe this is.

And that's almost all you need to know about this facelift, one plucked straight from the colour/trim/kit school of cost-effective upgrades. You can now have the roof arches in matt black, leather and Alcantara upholstery can be added to the base Sport model (for £1,200), while the higher-spec GT, as opted for by 80 per cent of buyers, is available with brown leather. Thrills.

However, this is a car worth taking another look at. The temptation is to imagine it as another ordinary continental coupe, more style than content. But the RCZ does feel sports car-ish. The ride is firm but not jarringly so, and it has responsive steering and good turn-in. It's quite eager and backed up by an engine that's way more punchy than its 1.6-litre displacement suggests. It even sounds vaguely enticing.

The manual gearbox is tight and sharp, and this is a satisfying car to punt around in. The gearing's a bit low and noise a fraction high, just taking the edge off refinement, while comfort is slightly compromised by a flat, firm seat that's mounted too high in the car. We don't go a bundle on the bulbous steering wheel, either. But it's a light, airy cabin with good visibility and reasonable practicality. It's a two-seater, though - the back's not for humans.

Prices start at £21,595 for the 156bhp petrol Sport, with this hot 197bhp GT as the flagship. There's also a 161bhp, 2.0-litre diesel from £23,430. Personally, I'm not sure GT trim is worth the mark-up - the pokiest engine in Sport trim at £23,980 looks the best deal to me. Oh, and the hot 256bhp RCZ R? Not here until the end of the year. Boo.

Ollie Marriage

The numbers
1598cc, 4cyl, FWD, 197bhp, 206lb ft, 42.1mpg, 155g/km CO2, 0-62mph in 7.6secs, 146mph, 1421kg

The verdict
Vastly improved front-end treatment takes care of our only real criticism. Not wonderfully charismatic, but a more enticing driver's car than you might think.

Citroen DS3 overall verdict
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- Our buying tip
Unusually for a piece of fashion-driven frippery, the pay-off needs no varnishing: the CitroenDS3 is a seriously good little car. Stylish, spacious, fun to drive and well built. Just ordered your Mini? Shame...
- Comfort
- Performance
  
  Citroen's usual array of engines are all available here, including the 1.4, 1.6 and 1.6 THP petrols, plus two versions of the 1.6 HDi with either 90 or 110bhp. The turbocharged 1.6 THP with 150bhp is the pick. It's smooth and torquey (177lb ft from 1,400rpm)and although it's not hot-hatch urgent (0-62mph in 7.3 secs, 133mph top-speed), the DS3's performance and in-gear acceleration is perfectly good. Uniquely for a small Citroen - any current Citroen, actually - the major controls have a glossy feel to them, and changing gear puts the driver centre stage in a process during which he or she might actually feel something mechanical happening. This is called driving.
- Cool
- Quality
  
  Citroen is making big noises this is a premium car, claims that could crumble with one crummy door-handle or wonky bit of trim, but the DS3 has a strong tactile appeal. The instruments are crisply styled and are split across three inter-connecting pods. The leather is high-quality stuff. The rest of the cabin hides its more proletarian C3 origins pretty well beneath body-colour dash panels and polished plastic that does a fair impression of aluminium.
- Handling
  
  The new DS3 manages to be supple without being sloppy. Its steering is nowhere near as meaty as a Mini's, and there's a noticeable degree of body roll, but it moves with a nicely contained accuracy. The fact is, the DS3 is pretty much bang-on for everyday use. What it lacks in ultimate chassis finesse, it more than makes up in overall refinement and general poise.
- Practicality
  
  The DS3 is still a fairly small car, but it is cleverly packaged to provide five proper seats and a boot that the Mini can't begin to match.
- Running costs
  
  Forget its stylish exterior for a moment because at its heart the DS3 is simply a three-door hatchback, and so its running costs match. All engines return an excellent economy figure, with the worst being the 1.6 THP at 42mpg and the best coming from the 1.6 90 HDi at 70mpg. The latter is also the one to choose for the lowest tax costs - at 104g/km of CO2 it's just £20 compared to the 1.6 THP's 155g/km and £155 cost.