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The MG3 is a compact city car that鈥檚 affordable to buy and comes with some refreshingly sporty styling. It doesn鈥檛 feel particularly well built inside, though, and its sole petrol engine isn鈥檛 particularly economical.

Helping to make up for this is the MG3鈥檚 affordable price tag. It costs less than the likes of the Kia Picanto and Hyundai i10 and even has the bargain-basement Suzuki Celerio licked.

Thankfully, the MG3 doesn鈥檛 look like a cut-price product. Its intake-ridden bumpers look more like they belong on a Suzuki Swift Sport-rivalling hot hatch and it comes with a few tasteful chrome trims.

It makes a good first impression when you climb inside, too. The doors come with a funky embossed pattern and all but the entry-level car comes with an 8.0-inch touchscreen. It鈥檚 not the brightest or most intuitive unit around, but it comes with Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring as standard so you can use your phone鈥檚 navigation and music-streaming apps through the MG鈥檚 screen.

It鈥檚 not all good news, though. The MG3鈥檚 dashboard, doors and various cubbies are made from cheap-feeling scratchy plastics and none of the switches and buttons feels particularly robust.

If you鈥檙e looking for a cheap car that鈥檚 reasonably spacious, though, you can forgive the MG3 a few brittle plastics. It鈥檚 roomier than the likes of the Suzuki Celerio, Hyundai i10 and Kia Picanto and there鈥檚 enough space in the back for a few six-foot passengers to get comfortable without brushing their heads on the roof. Things aren鈥檛 quite as roomy in the MG3鈥檚 boot, but there鈥檚 still plenty of room for a weekly shop.

You鈥檒l appreciate the MG3鈥檚 small size when it comes to squeezing into tight parking spaces. It鈥檚 large windows give you a good view out too, so it鈥檚 a doddle to manoeuvre, and the steering is nice and light to help make the occasional three-point turn dead easy.

Less suited to nipping through town is the MG3鈥檚 1.5-litre petrol engine. It feels sluggish at low revs and noisy when you accelerate hard. It鈥檚 not as economical as the smaller units you get in most alternatives, either.

Add to this the unpleasant wind and tyre noise you鈥檒l hear at motorway speeds and the MG3 is quite tiring to drive for long periods. Even top-spec cars with their built-in cruise control will have you reaching for a service-station coffee more regularly than most other small cars.

The MG3鈥檚 woes don鈥檛 stop their, either. Unlike many small cars, you can鈥檛 get it with automatic emergency braking to help prevent low-speed collisions, which is pretty poor these days. That being said, if you鈥檙e looking for a very cheap city car and don鈥檛 mind that it鈥檚 missing out on some fairly common driver assistance features, the MG3 may well be worth considering. Check out our MG3 deals and used MG pages to see how much you can save on one, and you can sell your car online through carwow as well.