Small vehicles on a small budget: The best and worst new superminis and city cars for less than £10,000 revealed

• With performance and equipment considered, there are our three top picks
• No sign of the UK's best-selling superminis — we explain why
• Unrefined, noisy and basic: The small cars we don't recommend

When buying a new small car with a budget of £10k you can end up with a cracker... or a cracker joke.
Because while there are some ultra-compact town vehicles we recommend, there are others that we recommend avoiding.
Given what’s on the market at the moment, these are our three winners.

1. Hyundai i10 1.0 Premium 
The small Hyundai is a clever piece of kit, well designed and well put together.
The 1.0 Premium gets the full five stars and you should be able to wangle the price down to around £9800.
For that you get more fives – doors, seats and warranty (five-year). Plus there’s air-con, heated mirrors, remote central locking and Bluetooth as standard.