Car hunter: Help! I need a small car with big space for under £8,000

The Volkswagen up! is excellent at nipping through tight city streets, and you’ll have fun while doing so. The car has a great chassis and loads of grip, making pretty much every drive a fun and enjoyable event.

Not only is the up! precise, it’s refined and extremely well put together, too. The car’s suspension is particularly impressive, dealing with bumps and road imperfections both at high and low speeds. We found a 17-plate up! 1.0 High (75bhp, 64.2mpg, 0-62mph in 13.2 seconds) with 40,000 miles on sale for £7,500.

The interior of the up! is another strong area; it’s simple but smart and, even more importantly, it’s well made. In terms of connectivity, there’s a small screen that displays the radio, clock and a few other functions; it’s not advanced, but looks clean. There’s also a smartphone/GPS holder, with drivers able to download a purpose-built app that operates as the sat-nav. Naturally, the up! isn’t best suited to carrying several passengers, but there are two rear seats that could be occupied for a short journey. There’s a reasonable 251 litres of boot space, which expands to 951 litres with the rear seats folded down.

See our used Volkswagen up! deals

• For: Largest boot of this trio, well laid-out cabin
• Against: Could be more composed, poor-quality plastics