1.0i 73ps SL 5dr

A very competent little car that doesn't deserve the awful reviews by so called "professional" reviewers.

In April 2023 I started my search for a small, economical, runabout car to replace my Audi TT MK1 on which the road tax was due to go up to over £400 a year and in which I was doing very little mileage.
I was looking for cars with road tax of £0-£20. Electric / Hybrid were out due to excess purchase price.
I started with the VW UP and ended up enquiring about a SEAT Mii . They both had good reviews from the " professionals". What the pros don't tell you is the price of servicing. The Mii requires a cambelt change every 5 years in the UK. Cost - I phoned my local SEAT dealer - just under £800. So any advantage gained from low road tax is gone.
I then began to look at cam chain driven cars. Aygo, Citroen, Peugeot, Hyundai none of which I liked.
Bottom of my list, thanks to the "pros" was the Viva. Fortunately I read owners reviews on HJ and Autotrader, the majority of which were positive, so decided to give one at a local dealer a visit.
I bought the car, after a test drive, on the spot.
It is very well equipped,six airbags, lane departure, cornering lights, speed limiter, half leather heated seats and loads of other stuff I wasn't expecting for the money. Three months later my wife and I have covered just over 1000 miles on a combination of city and motorway and the car is returning 53mpg. I recently did a 130 mile round trip from Southampton to Surrey and the car returned just under 60mpg. Slow on the motorway it is not. The pro reviewers don't appear to realize there is a 70 mph speed limit in the UK, which this little car is well able to keep up with. There are mobile and fixed speed cameras every where.They don't appear to value their clean licences as much as I do.
The car is very nippy, and handles well, especially round country roads. On the motorway it's pretty stable although on mine I'm sure stability will be improved once i replace the r****** RoadX tyres the the dealer put on at the front to replace worn Continentals.
The plastic trim inside, as others have said, isn't particularly good and scratches easily.
All in all I am very happy with this little car and suggest to the pro reviewer who undeservedly gave this brilliant little car a 1 out of 5 review on this HJ site maybe take up reviewing cakes at local fetes is more within their competency.

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