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  1. Five of the best cheap and cheerful cars money can buy
  2. Fiat Panda, Cuddly Italian
  3. Ford Ka, Light heavyweight champion
  4. Hyundai i10, Korean thrift part 1
  5. Kia Picanto, Korean thrift part 2
  6. VW Fox, Cheap and cheerful, for a VW.

Fiat Panda, Cuddly Italian

The new(ish) Fiat Panda is one of those rare cars that are effortlessly cool. It looks good because it's not trying too hard to look good; it drives far better than a utilitarian, slab-sided hatch should, and it's cheap. James May owns one too, and when a famous millionaire (probably) car journo buys a seven grand hatchback with his own money, it should be pretty good.

If you haggle with your Fiat dealer you can get a 1.1-litre Active model for about £6,000, and while it's never going to win you a traffic light drag race, it's still a blast on an undulating country road - and it's handy around town too. Sure, the boot is on the small side, the air vents will blow out warm air in the summer, and you'll be digging out your old tapes because a cassette player is standard - but the reward is fuel economy in the mid-fifties and 119g/km of CO2.

So, grab a couple of mates, dig out that cassette you made of the December 1988 Radio One chart countdown, and the Panda will provide some joyously green transport for a weekend camping in the Lakes.

Mark Nichol