Category: City Cars 
Price Range: £9,495 to £12,625
Lovely engines, solid build, commanding stance on the move, lots of space considering external dimensions
Too dear, basic, slow, notchy gearchange, not exactly stylish, not as efficient/comfortable/refined/etc as a Corsa...
One of the nicer high-rise city cars - but it's just not cheap enough to earn recommendation
When you compete as fiercely as Ford and Vauxhall, keeping one eye one the competition becomes second nature. So, when Ford launched its Ka city car in 1996, Vauxhall was wrong-footed. It didn't have anything to compete, nor were any plans on the cards. A hole thus appeared in its range, which had to be filled.
Fortunately, Vauxhall is owned by GM, who also owns Suzuki - so a deal was struck whereby Vauxhall would take the Wagon R from the Japanese, install its own excellent engines and interior switchgear, and market it as a much more practical rival to the pesky Ford. The resultant Agila was launched in 2000.
It hasn't made much of an impact since. Cute without being pretty, the Agila only comes as a five door (thus dissuading youngsters) and only comes with a manual gearbox (thus putting off the elderly). Putting such fundamental flaws aside, how does it compare against other city car rivals - and does it offer anything special to recommend it over the same-priced Corsa?
