Fiat Tipo

The Tipo’s USP is its low price. And it really is cheap, undercutting most rivals by four figures. In effect, it gives you a Ford Focus-sized car for less than the price of a Ford Fiesta. And that’s based on list price. Haggle hard and it won’t be too difficult to knock the price down by a significant margin, too.

The downside of the Tipo’s budget status and more or less non-existent image is that residual values are poor, so you’ll need to factor that into long-term costs if you’re buying one outright.

The Tipo’s engines aren’t very efficient by class standards and there’s no hybrid version available, but fuel and tax costs won’t be too high. To help budget for maintenance costs, Fiat offers an 'Easy Care' service payment package, which covers the car for all its scheduled servicing for the first three years of ownership.