Car Statistics: Mitsubishi - iCar Series 07 (3 stars)

Styling (3 stars)

Many see the iCar - with its overarching bumper-to-bumper lines - as the future of automotive design. It's certainly very cute but our test car's lime green paintjob made pedestrians point and laugh.

Handling (3 stars)

Feels light and lithe and offers adequate grip for a city car, but the lack of weight over the front end means it washes wide if you turn into roundabouts above city-limit speeds - especially when the road's wet. There's no lift-off oversteer to speak of, despite the weight of the engine being at the rear.

Comfort (3 stars)

Ride gets a bit crashy over potholes, but the relatively long wheelbase allows the iCar to shrug off speed bumps with disdain. The seats themselves are fairly comfortable, but the cabin's too cramped for longer-legged drivers

Quality (4 stars)

Interior materials aren't bad for a budget offering, although the cupholders and slide-out tray feels flimsy and cheap. At least it has them, though.

Performance (3 stars)

The turbocharged engine is surprisingly punchy for something as small as 660cc and the slick auto 'box helps the iCar to be swift off the lights. At higher speeds the diminutive motor gets breathless - we maxed out at 95mph downhill, but otherwise it's 85mph and getting there's a noisy effort.

Roominess (4 stars)

A small car like this which can carry four adult occupants is impressive. Even the boot space isn't bad, especially when you consider that the engine's housed in the rear.

Costs (4 stars)

You won't find yourself at the pumps often with a 54.6mpg fuel economy, although our test car didn't achieve anywhere near that. It only needs servicing once a year, is in the lowly 'B' band for road tax, and comes with a three year warranty.

Value (2 stars)

The iCar comes with a reasonably generous spec, but more than £9000 is just too much for a small, semi-experimental car like this. Extra demand may see prices to drop - for now Mitsubishi plans to import less than 1000.

Stereo (1 star)

The tinny stereo sounds awful, loses radio signal and is fiddly to operate. Sat nav's a costly optional extra, as is an iPod connection socket.