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
Vauxhall switchgear makes operating the Agila a cinch - even aliens could decipher the labels, even Polar bears could operate the chunky controls one-by-one. And utterly-predictable mannerisms also means there's not much to intimidate on the move. Sure, the gearchange is typically-Vauxhall, and typically not-exactly-slick, but the clutch and steering are light, and the ultra-short overhangs and owl-like visibility means you shouldn't drive into too many obstructions.
It's square, like a box, and we all know how easy it is to stack boxes - easy enough to mean you shouldn't stack this. It's not bad to drive, but it's no Ford Ka. You can certainly feel the height of the body as you lean into corners, and its weight is, as mentioned, betrayed by its surprising bulk. Still, it usually feels firmly-planted, and steering is precise and easy enough to make light work of town driving.
There's not much in the way of 'back road' chuckability, and motorways can be a plan-days-ahead chore, but in its natural environment it makes sense.
In 1.0-litre form, you can forget about racing all but the most sedated of Austin 1100-driving pensioners. It may well have 58 bhp, but the heavy Agila also takes a yawning 17 seconds to hit 60 mph from rest, and can only do 88 mph all-out. Hills defeat it quite often, even one-up, and frequent changes of the clunky, flimsy gearlever are demanded. However, as it's a three-cylinder unit of impeccable breeding, at least it never sounds strained, and is more often than not gem-like in manners.
The 1.2-litre four-cylinder unit is faster, with 60 mph arriving in 12.5 seconds, though even it can't crack 100 mph; blame bluff aerodynamics. The bigger unit is almost as smooth as the smaller though, and doesn't ask for much more fuel to feed its 75 horses.
