Hyundai has a new model in the showrooms today, first of a series of ''city cars'' being launched over the next few months. Unexpectedly well specified, the Atoz offers a choice of automatic, ordinary manual or clutchless transmissions. And it is unique in the class in coming with air conditioning as standard.
Five years ago, at the launch of the Cinquecento, Fiat managing director Paolo Cantarella said that by 1998 it would be the oldest design in the range. That claim was greeted with a certain amount of aye-that'll-be-right.
But it was right. And Fiat will soon have a brand new model in the smallest car class when the Seicento goes on sale.
Daihatsu's economical and clean-running 989cc three-cylinder Sirion arrives in June, as the production version of the NCX concept car displayed at some motor shows last year. Daewoo's main R&D department in Seoul and its technical centre in Sussex shared the engineering work on the Matiz, which went on sale on its home market two months ago, and will arrive here in September.
Italdesign was involved in the styling, and Tickford at Milton Keynes helped develop the 800cc engine to the point where it produces a 50bhp, a very healthy power output.
Volkswagen's version of the well thought-of Seat Arosa has its UK launch early next year. Called the Lupo, from the Latin for wolf, since it is being built in the Volkswagen factory at Wolfsburg, it will share the Arosa's choice of engines.
These are all VW units anyway: one-litre and 1.4-litre petrol engines plus the 1.7-litre turbo diesel. The Lupo will also have a 12-year anti-corrosion warranty.
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