11 great-handling used car heroes that are (reasonably) cheap to run

Of course there's an MX-5. It’s cheap to buy – particularly second-hand – with unrelenting reliability and frugal fuel economy. But beyond that, it’s a fun car, regardless of how you drive it. If you just like to cruise, lovely. Want to enjoy the sensations of driving? Go right ahead. Want to go all-out and breach the limits of civility and traction? Easy: the front engine, rear-drive setup is made for such tomfoolery.

Don’t want an MX-5? Well, the Honda S2000, Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ still exist.

Hard as it might be to admit, the Clio suffers in comparison to the MX-5, GT86, S2000 and their ilk. Chiefly because those sports cars were made purely for driving enjoyment, while the Clio 182 started its life as a regular Clio. A simple city car, made for shopping runs, pensioners and learner drivers.

And of course, this means the 182 will never be as responsive and alive, as entertaining to drive, or as much of a tail-out lunatic as a rear-drive sports car, right? Wrong. The little Clio capitalises on every upgrade in a way that shames anything bigger and ostensibly better.

For us, hot hatch perfection exists much closer to its roots – simple, practical, and with the ability to fit in any parking space as easily as any social situation. And, crucially, designed to extract the biggest fun at the smallest speeds.

The MkV GTI is more than an enduring example of this hot hatch how-to list; it’s real-world proof of the ingredients and recipe. Yes, you can alter it to taste, but the basic recipe still delivers the best results. And miles per gallon, now that we think of it.

A thorough reevaluation of the car itself – its size, shape, layout and mechanicals – in order to get more automobile from less material than anyone thought was possible. See also: Fiat 500.

By now, the Mini’s story is embedded in car-person canon. While practicality and parsimony defined its proportions, they also served another purpose: as a perfect platform for pure enjoyment.

The i8’s numbers alone make you feel like you’re getting away with something you shouldn’t. It has 370bhp and does 0-60mph in the four-second range, yet also manages 45mpg without any special effort on the driver’s part. It’s a proper two-door supercar with a cornucopia of carbon fibre, but it can also switch to EV mode and creep through town in the dead of night without disturbing a soul.

And even though it packs a petrol engine, electric motor and battery pack under its overt flanks, it still only weighs 1,535kg in coupe form and 1,600kg for the gorgeous roadster. A lightweight by modern standards.

Polar opposites. It’s the basis of any good buddy comedy, and about 300 bad ones. It also rather handily describes the BMW i8 and roughly anything in Caterham’s line-up.

When every layer of complexity risks insulating the driver from the experience of driving, Caterham solves the problem by avoiding it entirely. Build it small, build it light and include only what’s truly necessary to have a good time.

The Alpine A110 does things differently. Fundamentally it’s a terrific car, a genuine exponent of light weight that makes you question the claims of almost every firm that says they build light cars.

It tackles difficult roads with unflappable poise and agility. It’s a non-threatening sports car that proves that you can reverse the trend towards bigger wheels, bigger brakes, more power and more weight and still have something capable and exciting. And there’s not much that flows across country with so little effort and so little energy expended.

The final generation of MR2 stands alone as the perfect nexus of cheap, mid-engined and fun. Not easy to achieve, but easy to pick up for peanuts – at least in the UK.

If you’re an i20N driver, you might be wondering how a car we’re touting as frugal manages to empty its tank so quickly. Helpfully that’s a question we’re actually qualified to answer...

The answer is both simple and twofold. Firstly, the tank is so comically tiny, you’ll be the only person at the petrol station who doesn’t need to take out a new mortgage to brim their tank. Secondly – and perhaps more importantly – it’s entertaining enough to forget how much this kind of fun costs these days.

But even with the spirited driving that we indulged in on our road test, the i20N still managed 40mpg. It’s an impossibly frugal, and nigh-on ineffably fun machine.

After years of practice and experience, humanity has pretty much figured out how to get good fuel economy. Light weight, slippery bodywork and small engines are pretty much the ABC of getting from A to B without too many Fs at the petrol pump. And the Elise couldn’t nail this formula any better, so of course it earns its place here.

But, as you may have been able to discern already, the Elise is a sports car. So what happens when you start driving in the manner a car like this practically begs for? Well, if you’ve picked up a Series 1 Elise you’ll likely be hitting somewhere around the 40mpg mark. And, thanks to a mostly waterproof roof, it’s not entirely outside the bounds of reality to consider using one as your only car.

Half the job of a hot hatchback is to be, well, a hatchback. ST-ing a Fiesta doesn’t impact on how good it is as standard: big boot, full complement of five seats, plenty of room, cheap running costs. You can choose three or five doors, too.

Alright, you’ll live under the 30mpg mark if you like to drive briskly (and you're making all those gratuitous gearchanges). But Ford quotes mid-40s in regular use. For a car with a sub-7.0sec 0-60mph time, that’s damn good.