Category: City Cars 
Price Range: £7,110 to £8,665
Impressively roomy cabin, large boot space, excellent functionality, good engines, fun to drive, unpretentious and utilitarian.
Cheap-feeling and dated cabin, staid styling, lack of character, no central rear seat, probably still not affordable enough to be a real budget 'world car'.
It's a Volkswagen, no doubt about that, even if it feels like a Volkswagen from a decade or so ago and is a long way from being a genre-definer. Good basic transport and a decent drive nonetheless.
It'll be cheap to run, no doubt. And it'll fit into low tax classifications, insurance should be low (though groupings haven't been confirmed yet for the UK) and potential repair and maintenance costs will be kept down, though it's too early to make firm predictions. The 1.2 petrol returns 45.6mpg and 146g/km of carbon dioxide, the 1.4 petrol 42.2mpg and 161g/km and the 1.4 diesel gives 57.6mpg and 132g/km. All very respectable, if not best-in-class.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Fox
wrote on 16 11 2006