New Toyota Aygo X vs MG 3 vs Renault Clio

The contenders

NEW Toyota Aygo X 1.5 Hybrid Design

List price £23,695 Target Price £20,445

MG 3 Hybrid+ Trophy

List price £21,245 Target Price £16,995

Renault Clio E-Tech 145 Techno Esprit Alpine

List price £23,295 Target Price £20,411

Thousands of years ago, people started selectively breeding dogs as a way of creating hybrids that were faster, stronger and more intelligent, ultimately filling each and every role they could possibly be needed for. Hybrid cars fulfil a similar role in the world today, building on the strengths of conventional petrol-powered cars by adding electrical assistance to, in theory, significantly boost efficiency.

In the past, full hybrids – which can use both the engine and electric motor to propel the car along, or drive on electricity alone at times – have tended to be relatively expensive to buy, but that’s changed in recent years. In many cases, the price gap has closed to bring hybrids into consideration for more buyers.

Toyota Aygo X vs MG3 vs Renault Clio video group test

That’s even true in the small car arena, where the cheapest hybrids can sometimes undercut normal petrol cars and mild hybrids (which provide only a token amount of electrical assistance for the engine).

But are these very affordable hybrid cars actually any good? To find out, we rounded up the three cheapest currently on sale and took them on a two-day road trip that included everything from bustling inner-London streets and a tight, ‘breathe in and pray’ width restrictor to winding country roads and even a drag race on a disused airfield.

The first of our contenders is the MG 3 Hybrid+. There are two trim levels available, with the entry-level SE (£19,245) being the cheapest hybrid car on the market at the moment – as a cash purchase, at least. While that version doesn’t have a spartan equipment list, we’ve gone with a range-topping Trophy for this test, adding some upgraded materials inside, as well as a 360deg parking camera, keyless entry and start, heated front seats and a heated steering wheel. Even in this trim, the MG 3’s £21,245 price tag means it remains the cheapest car in this test.

Indeed, it costs around £2000 less than our second car, the Renault Clio E-Tech 145. However, we should point out that our test car was in one of the Clio’s higher trim levels (Techno Espirit Alpine); you can have a lower-spec version with the same hybrid set-up for as little as £21,795.

Could it be that the Clio is worth the extra outlay, though? After all, it’s one of our favourite small cars generally, being smart looking inside and great to drive. Plus, Techno Esprit Alpine trim comes with loads of standard equipment, including heated front seats, a rear-view parking camera and wireless phone charging.

Still, it’ll have its work cut out to beat our reigning Small Car of the Year: the new Toyota Aygo X. While we’ve always liked the tiny Toyota, the previous version’s underpowered and asthmatic petrol engine meant that it was hard to recommend as anything other than a city runabout. This new version has solved that problem by adopting hybrid power (as used in the larger Toyota Yaris) to boost performance and responsiveness. Best of all, the added pace hasn’t come at the expense of efficiency; on the contrary, the hybrid Aygo X has an impressive official average fuel economy figure of just over 74mpg.

In theory, that should help to make up for the difference in price to the MG – which, with this Aygo X being in mid-tier Design trim, is around £2500. But as with the Clio, if you stick to the cheapest trim (Icon), the cost is much closer to that of the MG 3, even if it misses out on some creature comforts.

Day one

Starting out at a petrol station near What Car? headquarters in Twickenham, south-west London, we brimmed the cars’ fuel tanks so that we could get accurate economy figures at the end of the test. After all, what’s the point of choosing a hybrid if it  can’t reduce your running costs?

Of course, with each of our drivers mainly sticking to one car, the tests won’t be completely scientific, but to keep things as fair as possible, we followed the same format that we use for all of our economy testing: air-con set to 21deg C and auto, with the car’s Normal driving mode (or closest equivalent) selected.

With the trip computers reset, we set our sights on central London. More specifically, Albert Bridge, where the 6ft 6in width
restrictor would really test the capability of our contenders on tight city streets. Usually, a nine-mile drive would be a pretty straightforward undertaking, but typical London traffic sought to challenge that.

In such conditions, the Aygo X really comes into its own. Its diminutive proportions let it nip in and out of smaller gaps, and its light, quick steering is ideal for driving around town, letting you take full advantage of its exceptionally tight, 9.4-metre turning circle between kerbs (compared with the Clio’s 10.4m and the MG’s 10.5m).

The MG’s steering doesn’t do it any favours. It’s slow and heavy, meaning that you need to turn the wheel far more before it starts to do anything, and that makes quick town manoeuvres a bit more laborious.

Despite its comparatively larger size, the Clio is still a piece of cake to drive around town. Its steering is sharper and better weighted than the MG’s, yet still light enough to make tight manoeuvres easy to perform.

While the Clio has the most settled and comfortable ride at all speeds, the Aygo X isn’t far behind. Despite being fitted with the largest (18in) wheels of any car in this test, it soaks up minor imperfections far better than the MG, which generates more of a thud (that you can hear and feel) over potholes and fidgets continually as you drive along.

Ride comfort may not be its forte, but the MG has the measure of its rivals when it comes to stopping. Its brake pedal is slightly more feelsome than the Aygo X’s and more predictable than the Clio’s; the latter’s brakes tend to bite quite abruptly, making the Clio the trickiest to bring to a smooth halt.

Arriving at Albert Bridge, the Aygo X seemed like the right car to be in, with its diminutive width of just 1740mm (excluding the door mirrors), great forward visibility and boxy shape making it a doddle to thread through the narrow width restrictor. Life in the MG and Clio, meanwhile, was slightly more stressful. They both measure around 1800mm, not counting their mirrors, but slim windscreen pillars aid visibility. The MG provided further aid by calling on its surround-view camera to provide a digital illustration of exactly what was around the car.

Ultimately, all three contenders put on a good show and made sure that we had a far easier time than our videographer, Jonty Renk, who had the not-so-pleasant task of squeezing (successfully, we might add) our Toyota Land Cruiser support vehicle through the same width restrictor more than once.

Day two

Rising early at our hotel in Guildford, the first order of business was to load up all of our camera gear and suitcases, giving us a chance to test the practicality and interiors of each car. The MG and Clio have good-sized boots by class standards, each being able to accommodate four carry-on suitcases below the parcel shelf. But in reality, the Clio’s is a slightly more usable shape.

While the cases fitted fairly uniformly into its boot, leaving a clear space for an additional soft bag, the MG required us to use a fairly unusual configuration, with lots of wasted space. It still managed one more case, though, than the Aygo X’s boot. At 231 litres, it’s far smaller than its rivals’, and neither its shape nor the width of its opening makes it all that practical for carrying loads.

The rear seatbacks can be folded down in all three cars if you need to carry larger loads, but the MG’s don’t split, meaning you have to fold the whole thing down as one large piece. This removes the option of allowing a passenger to sit in one of the rear seats while folding down the other seatback if you need to feed a long item through from the boot. By contrast, you can split the Clio’s seatbacks in a 60/40 configuration, and the Aygo X’s split 50/50.

As well as having the pokiest boot, practicality elsewhere isn’t a strength of the Aygo X. You see, while there’s plenty of space up front for a pair of six-footers, passengers of a similar size will struggle for head and leg room in the back seats. Unlike its rivals, the Aygo X is a strict four-seater, too, not providing a middle rear seatbelt.

The MG and Clio both offer enough rear space for a pair of six-footers to fit behind two equally tall people in the front. The MG has slightly more leg room back there, but the shape of its ceiling makes it harder to lean your head back on the head restraint without touching the rooflining.

The Aygo X’s curvy interior design helps to add some interest and distract you from the fact that almost every surface is made from hard plastics. Like that car, the MG’s interior is dominated by hard plastics, apart from a strip of leather-like material on the dashboard, courtesy of its elevated trim level. Its build quality is a far cry from the robust Aygo X’s, though, and we found that some elements felt a bit flimsy and like they’d soon be broken by enthusiastic children.

You’ll also find that physical air-con controls are missing from the MG, whereas our other contenders do get these. Sure, you can make changes using a shortcut on its steering wheel, but that still isn’t as easy as knobs and buttons. And if you’re using smartphone mirroring, you have to come out of this before you can change the temperature in the MG.

Compared with both, the Clio is a definite step up in quality. It gets soft-touch materials all over its interior and has the best build quality of the three; its climate control dials feel particularly upmarket.

All three infotainment systems are easy to operate, offering straightforward menus and sharp screen graphics. The MG’s and Aygo X’s touchscreens proved responsive to inputs; the Clio’s, though, was a bit jerky.

With the cars loaded and their interiors sufficiently explored, we plugged the disused airfield into the sat-navs – built-in systems in the MG and Clio, whereas the Aygo X relies on Android Auto and Apple CarPlay phone mirroring (which the others have too) for navigation duties. That done, we chose the route that offered the most country roads.

As speeds increased, the Clio proved to be the best to drive, with its suspension striking a great balance between comfort and control and its steering being ideally weighted. While the firm suspension in the MG and Aygo X helped to control body lean, their steering let them down, giving us less of an idea of what the front wheels were doing. As was the case around town, the MG was the least comfortable, with its persistently fidgety ride jostling us around in our seat and ensuring that we felt every lump as we drove along.

Given that the MG has easily the most power and its official 0-62mph time of 8.0sec is more than a second quicker than what the Clio and Aygo X can do, we expected it to put in a better showing once we hit the drag strip. Now, a drag race over a quarter of a mile between three cars like this might not seem all that relevant, but it added a little more entertainment to this test’s accompanying YouTube video and allowed for performance testing at the same time.

While we expected the MG to win, it was the way it went about doing so that was surprising. You see, the MG was initially more sluggish getting off the line than its rivals, but it surged forwards dramatically after it shifted up to second gear, almost as though its engine was fitted with a huge turbocharger that needed to spool up before providing full power. In reality, none of these cars’ engines is turbocharged, but the MG’s electric motor is really powerful, and that’s where the extra shove comes from.

With the MG disappearing into the distance, the race was closer between the Clio and Aygo X, both offering strong performance and getting up to speed quickly. Ultimately, though, the Clio just pipped the Aygo X, feeling punchier as the speed built up.

Following our fun on the runway, our convoy headed back to the petrol station where it all started, so that we could refill the tanks and run the numbers.

The money

As we said earlier, one of the main reasons for buying a hybrid is efficiency, so we’ll start with that. In the end, the MG was the least economical (44.1mpg), with the Clio being slightly better (46.1mpg). Neither came close to matching the Aygo X’s impressive average of 57.1mpg, though. Ultimately, that difference means the Aygo X will cost you almost £1000 less in fuel bills over three years and 36,000 miles.

That saving ensures that the Aygo X will be the cheapest to own over the same period, despite the fact that it will be pricier to service than the others. Better still, if you’re buying on PCP finance, the Aygo X’s slow predicted depreciation and low (2.9%) APR mean it’ll cost you the least per month. Put down a £4000 deposit on a three-year contract with an 8000-mile annual  limit and the Aygo X comes in at £230 a month, compared with the MG’s £234 and the Clio’s £287 – the latter’s figure being inflated by a relatively high APR of 7.4% (compared with the MG’s 6.9%).

If you’re a company car driver, the Aygo X’s low CO2 output makes it the cheapest per month in benefit-in-kind tax. The MG makes a solid second option, costing £3 more per month, while the Clio is £10 more again (for those in the 40% tax bracket). If safety is a priority for you, all three cars look good on the surface, having been awarded four stars by the experts at Euro NCAP. Look deeper, though, and things aren’t so rosy. You see, none scored particularly highly when it came to protecting adults in the front or children in the rear, although the Clio fared best in both areas.

However, you might want to seriously consider whether the MG is a good option, due to an issue with its driver’s seat latching mechanism failing during testing. It’s the first time a failure of that kind has ever been experienced by the safety experts at Euro NCAP, causing the driver’s seat to twist partway through an impact. That’s a serious failure, prompting Aled Williams, programme director at Euro NCAP, to say that “we would recommend that consumers consider alternatives to the MG 3”. It makes you wonder why Euro NCAP awarded the car a four-star rating overall.

On top of that, MG was the least reliable brand in the 2025 What Car? Reliability Survey and the MG 3 one of the least reliable small cars. Not a great showing. The Clio also ended up towards the bottom of the small car league table but with a much higher score than the MG 3, plus Renault finished a bit higher in the brand league table, ranking 20th out of 30.

The Aygo X, though, continues to be one of the most dependable small cars, taking second place in its category (behind only the Hyundai i10, which is about to go off sale), while Toyota was fourth in the manufacturer table. If anything does go wrong, the Aygo X comes with a warranty of up to 10 years or 100,000 miles, provided you get it serviced annually at a Toyota dealer. MG offers cover for seven years/80,000 miles, while Renault’s three-year/60,000-mile warranty is a bit disappointing.

Our verdict

Even being the cheapest to buy outright isn’t enough to save the MG 3 from coming last in this test. With the exception of straight-line speed and standard kit, it’s outclassed by these rivals, proving less comfortable, less efficient and the worst to drive. What’s more, we can’t recommend a car that has suffered such a serious failure during its Euro NCAP safety testing.

In contrast, the Clio and Aygo X are excellent cars with very different strengths; the Clio is more practical and better to drive at higher speeds, while the Aygo X is more reliable, more efficient and great around town. However, we’re not convinced that it’s worth paying extra for the Clio hybrid. We’d stick with the regular petrol version in Techno+ trim, because it’s much cheaper, comes with loads of kit and is still pretty efficient.

To that end, the best hybrid small car that you can buy is the Aygo X. Sure, you have to make some compromises when it comes to space and practicality, but these aren’t high priorities for most small car buyers, and the Aygo X more than compensates where it counts: costs. What’s more, it’s good to drive, even when you aren’t in town, and it’ll provide long-term peace of mind. Just bear in mind that entry-level Icon trim represents even better value.

Specifications: Toyota Aygo X 1.5 Hybrid Design

Engine 3cyl, 1490cc, petrol, plus electric motor
Power 114bhp
Torque 104lb ft
Gearbox CVT automatic
0-62mph 9.2sec
Top speed 106mph
Fuel economy 74.3mpg (official)
CO2, tax band 87g/km, 23%

Toyota Aygo X review >>

Toyota Aygo X deals >>

Specifications: Renault Clio E-Tech 145 Techno Esprit Alpine

Engine 4cyl, 1598cc, petrol, plus two electric motors
Power 141bhp
Torque 151lb ft
Gearbox 4-spd automatic
0-62mph 9.3sec
Top speed 111mph
Fuel economy 64.2mpg (official)
CO2, tax band 99g/km, 25%

Renault Clio review >>

Renault Clio deals >>

Specifications: MG 3 Hybrid+ Trophy

Engine 4cyl, 1498cc, petrol, plus electric motor
Power 192bhp
Torque 313lb ft
Gearbox 3-spd automatic
0-62mph 8.0sec
Top speed 106mph
Fuel economy 64.2mpg (official)
CO2, tax band 100g/km, 26%

MG 3 review >>

MG 3 deals >>

What they'll cost to buy and own

Toyota Aygo X

List price 23, 695
Best price £20,445
Resale value (after three years) £15,165

THREE YEAR COSTS
Depreciation £5280
Insurance £1635
Servicing £1410
Road tax £390
Fuel (test MPG) £3823
Total £12,538

PCP FINANCE (£4000 DEPOSIT, 8000 MILES/YEAR, 3 YEARS) 
Monthly cost £230

COST FOR OUR ROAD TRIP
Litres used 10.97
Fuel economy 57.1mpg
Cost £14.69

Renault Clio

List price 23,295
Best price £20,411
Resale value (after three years) £13,045

THREE YEAR COSTS
Depreciation £6405
Insurance £1566
Servicing £843
Road tax £390
Fuel (test MPG) £4735
Total £13,939

PCP FINANCE (£4000 DEPOSIT, 8000 MILES/YEAR, 3 YEARS) 
Monthly cost £287

COST FOR OUR ROAD TRIP
Litres used 13.57
Fuel economy 46.1mpg
Cost £18.17

MG 3 Hybrid+

List price 21,245
Best price £16,995
Resale value (after three years) £12,110

THREE YEAR COSTS
Depreciation £4829
Insurance £2055
Servicing £1277
Road tax £390
Fuel (test MPG) £4950
Total £13,502

PCP FINANCE (£4000 DEPOSIT, 8000 MILES/YEAR, 3 YEARS) 
Monthly cost £234

COST FOR OUR ROAD TRIP
Litres used 14.21
Fuel economy 44.1mpg
Cost £19.03

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