Best small cars 2025 plus the one to avoid – tried & tested

You might think that with SUVs dominating the sales charts these days, the humble small car might have dropped off a proverbial cliff, but the truth is that plenty of car buyers are on the look out for a smaller model – especially if they live in the city.

Sometimes referred to as superminis, small cars come in more varieties than ever before. There are some which offer three doors, some with five, some with electric power, and even some which you can have with the kind of chunky bodywork which makes them look like SUVs. And speaking of electric cars, that is worth considering if you can charge up at home or at work, since if you can there's the prospect of dramatically lowering your running costs compared with a purely combustion-engined car.

To decide the best small cars, our experienced team of road testers have driven all of the options in the market over thousands of miles. We've spent hundreds of hours at the wheel, testing them both on public roads, and back-to-back against key rivals at our private test track. To make our list of the best small cars, a model must be comfortable at any speed, easy to drive around town, and be practical enough for a couple of passengers or your weekly shop. Plus, we'd like it to be relatively cheap to run, and it can't cost the Earth to begin with.

In this article, then, we're naming the best small cars you can buy, as well as revealing the model which we think you should avoid. Remember that if any of the cars here take your fancy, you can learn more about any of them by reading our full reviews, or see the latest small car deals available through our full New Car Deals service.

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