Real cars for the real world

Much as I still love cars and the freedoms and opportunities they bring to me, I'm sorry to say that I struggle to get terribly excited about most of them at the minute.

Part of the 'problem' is that although fresh from the factory motors are now so damn reliable and well built, they are boringly predictable; the gap between the best and the worst is shrinking fast. If you’re buying a modest new car in the UK, it will be good and if you opt for any of the best superminis, there really is nothing between the Mazda 2, Fiat Punto, Vauxhall Corsa and Skoda Fabia because they're all utterly brilliant.

But credit where credit's due. Cars such as the Fiat 500 have put the much needed excitement back into the new car market, thanks to daring interior and exterior designs. And contrary to early reports that said the new Italian-styled, Polish built baby will be over-priced, it's not. For as little as £7,900 you can own one (a 55mpg 1.2 petrol) although I'd be tempted to spend a little more and go for the £9,300, 67mpg 1.3 diesel instead.

With so little separating affordable, state of the art cars in terms of build quality, reliability and driving pleasure, I reckon its factors like fuel consumption and Co2 emissions that will become increasingly important to buyers. So with chic, safe, accessible cars like the 500 diesel doing, on paper at least, 67mpg on average (ie, in a variety of different driving conditions) those soul and wallet destroying visits to the forecourt pumps can at least be greatly reduced.

In theory, this car will travel over 500 miles on one tank of diesel. It's less thirsty than the holier than thou Toyota Prius and the Fiat's low Co2 rating of 111g/km means it's almost as clean as the Toyota which costs twice as much to buy. And the lower a car's Co2 output, the cheaper its tax disc and the more chance the vehicle owner has of getting cut price parking and low or no cost congestion charging and toll fees.

But if there's a strong argument for buying the Fiat 500 because it's such a fuel miser and so kind to the environment, the case for the diesel-powered Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion is even more overwhelming. A combination of 99g/km and 74mpg overall means that it slaughters the 500 and the Prius in terms of frugality and environmental qualities. True, it's not cheap at £11,995 but it is a Volkswagen with tank-like durability and will, I suspect, keep going for many more years than a Fiat or a Toyota.

I spent a few days bombing around in a BlueMotion last month, and managed to get 59.2 mpg out of it. Had I been a little gentler with the accelerator I'm sure I could have improved consumption by 10-20 per cent.

On paper, the Polo BlueMotion has a tank rage of 736 miles which, for a 9,000 mile a year driver, means only about 12 visits to fuel stations per year. Who'd have thought it? A proper, high quality, conventional, five seat car that only needs refuelling once a month.

That means more money for you and less for the wealthy oil corporations and the UK Government which taxes you heavily on every gallon you buy.

Mike Rutherford is a freelance writer, broadcaster and pro-car activist. Currently writing weekly columns for The Daily Telegraph and Auto Express, and monthly columns for The Independent and Motoring & Leisure, he also presented Pulling Power on ITV.

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