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I drove one (SZ3) for a day (my Mazda3 was in for a clutch change and the garage ran out of time, so I was loaned one for the drive home and back to work the next day) and did 35 miles of both town and dual carriageway driving.
I won't bother with comments about the looks, but as the driving/using experience goes:
Not as slow as I was expecting (my previous car was a 1996 1ltr Micra) and the combination of its light weight and 68PS engine was perfectly fine around town, even doing 70 on the dual carriageway was ok, though overtaking and hills needed a bit of thought requiring a drop in a cog or two to build up speed again (5th gear rapidly runs out of puff).
Handling so-so, and I thought the driving position was a bit odd - I seemed to 'perch' on the seat, with a high driving position, having to actually reach down to pull the handbrake - very odd. The gear stick position higher up, like some modern cars, takes a bit of getting used to, and not much feel with the (light) clutch.
A bit noisy, but this was a cheap 'n' cheerful car, probably made worse by it being quite high sided. Again, you aren't going to be concerned about the use of cheap, hard plastics when paying £7k - £8k new. At least it had A/C (it was August at the time and I needed it) - good for the price.
I can't comment about fuel economy as I didn't need (just) to fuel up (my dealership [Mazda/Honda/Suzuki/Nissan/Peugeot]) waved this in recognition of the delay in getting my car back).
I would say if you want a value-for-money new shopping car/town runaround, then this might be suitable, but for longer trips or about 5k miles a year, then I'd give it a miss, especially if you (like me) suffer from back problems and need a car with a good seat/driving position as well as good road manners and more poke. It was the reason I sold my Micra and bought the Mazda3 1.6 petrol.
Edited by Engineer Andy on 03/12/2016 at 18:33
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