In a market increasingly packed with worthy, serious and sophisticated cars, you have to dig deeper for the simple, affordable, fun-to-drive options - but they do exist. Our writers have rooted them out

PHOTOGR APHY LUC LACEY

These are difficult and challenging times for the car. The industry behind them clearly believes that we, as drivers, can be motivated to pay for all sorts of things, from safety to sustainability, from performance to on-board technology and from space and convenience to luxurious lustre. But it seems to think that fewer and fewer of us are interested in at-thewheel entertainment delivered in a simple, affordable, compact package.

At least that is what you might be forced to conclude by looking at the vast majority of the new cars that we’re buying right now. As our hot hatchbacks and performance options seem to get more serious and more expensive, so many of the electric cars we’re offered seem to come from a place preoccupied with 0-60mph acceleration or are designed to serve more luxury-minded tastes. Those ever-so-popular crossovers and SUVs still, by and large, don’t make interesting cars for drivers. And as the SUVs slowly take over, so more and more of the old defaultpick hatchbacks on which we could depend for a bit of dynamic appeal are supplanted in showrooms.

It sounds like a sorry tale indeed, but there is hope. Over the following pages, we’ve picked eight of our favourite simple, affordable mainstream driver’s cars, all of which demonstrate that you can still find a keener and more dynamically appealing option across various market segments. Superminis, city cars, family hatchbacks, sports cars and compact crossovers are among them, as well as electric, hybrid and petrol-engined options.

These cars prove that less can still be more, even in our current car market, and that you needn’t spend big, or go particularly fast, to enjoy your modern motoring.

FORD FIESTA

THERE WAS A case for making the previous-generation Ford Fiesta ST the pound-for-pound most fun car on sale. It had one of the all-time great chassis and an incredibly strong 1.6-litre turbocharged engine. It also did that great hot hatch trick of being usable as an everyday hatch without fully succumbing to the ‘hot’ part.

I’ll have a shiny new one of those one day, I thought, so when the time came to swap the family Mini Cooper, off to the Ford garage we went. By then, though, that Fiesta ST had been replaced by the current one, and for me the suspension is just too bone-shattering and the now-smaller engine too highly strung to be enjoyable when you just want to get home at some godforsaken hour.

Our attention turned to the ST-Line model. It looks like an ST and the chassis is very much recognisable from that of its hot hatch big brother; after all, brilliantly involving dynamics come as standard with almost every Ford. Admittedly, the ST-Line doesn’t go quite like an ST, but having tried different f lavours of the brilliant 1.0-litre Ecoboost engine that makes up the range, the basic 94bhp option never felt massively slower; it’s actually a sweet spot for performance, economy and price.

Long story short, we bought the one you see pictured here a couple of years ago, and have been revelling in the ST-lite experience ever since. It’s a true case of less being more.

There’s a reason why the Fiesta sat atop the UK sales charts for so long: it’s a very good car that works very well for a lot of people. Enthusiasts can revel in its handling, while those who care nothing for cars can enjoy the enormous Ford dealer network that makes servicing a doddle. Then there’s the huge number of people who straddle these two extremes, and they will enjoy plenty more that the Fiesta has to offer.