Business, Legal & Motoring Auto Biographies
Used Cars Mini Hot Hatches
The latest generation VW Golf GTi is a brilliant performance car with all the benefits of a family hatch. But it also has room for 5 tall adults, is extremely well equipped and as refined and comfortable as a Mercedes E Class. The original Golf GTi was small, noisy and about as much fun as you can have with your trousers on.
A modern day city car is around the same size as that ground breaking hot hatch but few manufacturers have come up with the idea of producing a souped up version of their smallest offering – in fact, I could only come up with three of them; here they are.
VW Up GTi
My favourite city car moves up a gear with the addition of a turbocharger for its tiny 3-cylinder engine, giving it 114bhp. In such a small car that equates to 0-62 in 8.5 seconds and a top whack of 120mph. The conservative but well-proportioned styling is enhanced by 17” alloys, a rear spoiler and go faster stripes and the interior is reminiscent of a Mark I Golf GTi, complete with tartan cloth bucket seats and red gauges. The Up might be tiny on the outside but there’s plenty of room for four adults inside and everything is very well screwed together. Precise steering and tons of grip make for agile handling, though it can’t quite match the grin factor of the original. It’s also a bit noisy at motorway speeds but that’s not going to worry most hot hatch buyers. The GTi was released quite recently so there aren’t any older, cheaper cars around, though luckily the Up is pretty cheap to begin with. Expect to pay £12k for a 2018 model with 10,000 miles on the clock.
Fiat Abarth 595 The hot hatch version of Fiat’s cute and curvy 500 has been around since 2008 and was rebadged as the 595 in 2015. It’s a similar recipe to the Up GTi - stick a turbocharger on the engine, throw in some big alloys, a tasty body kit and some bucket seats,
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stiffen the suspension and away you go. The 1.4 litre engine offers between 143 and 180bhp depending on which spec you go for, serious grunt in such a small car, and makes a lovely sound while its about it. The Abarth is seriously fast in a straight line but, sadly, the handling doesn’t live up to the performance; it lacks grip on the front end and the steering is too light. It also shares the same faults as the standard car, a back breakingly firm ride, lack of headroom in the back and a tiny boot. Still, it looks the part and offers good value too - £11,000 puts you in a 2017 car with less than 10k miles under its belt.
Suzuki Swift Sport Hot versions of the Suzuki Swift have long been popular among the boy racer fraternity, but have stayed under the radar for the rest of the motoring public. The kids love it because of the rev happy engine, rorty exhaust note and brilliant handling. The steering is super precise with oodles of feedback and it’s perfectly balanced in the corners. An all new model was introduced in 2018 with a torquey 1.4 litre turbocharged engine, and this makes the previous version a serious bargain. The naturally aspirated 1.6 litre engine kicks out 134bhp, not bad for a car that tips the scales at just over a tonne. It’s not the best-looking car ever but the big alloys and rear spoiler give it a sense of purpose. Inside there’s room for 5, some comfy bucket seats and masses of kit but really the Swift Sport is all about the driving experience – it’s king of the twisty back road. Better still, a 2016 car with tiny mileage can be yours for just £8,500.
Kit Johnson To advertise please call 0121 371 0882
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