“How come”, says the imaginary consumer in my head, “all the articles about the most beautiful cars in the world always use cars I could never afford?”. It’s a reasonable question. Automotive escapism has it’s place, but it serves no practical purpose; the average car buyer can’t exactly up and buy a LaFerrari, no matter how many masturbatory beauty contests it wins. So, let’s have our own beauty contest. One that doesn’t allow in the aloof, inaccessible million-pound supermodels. One where all the contestants are obtainable. The counterfeit Chippendale. The prettiest girl in the office.
So here it is. The top 5 best-looking cars you can buy for under £20,000.
Number 5: Renault Megane Coupe (from £17,645)
Normally, the way to make a good-looking hatchback is to make it look small, nimble and agile. It’s a winning formula that runs through almost every beautiful example of the style. So credit, then, to Renault for bucking that trend with the Megane Coupe. This car feels big, much bigger than most of it’s competitors listed here, but it brings with it bags and bags of road presence and some very pretty styling. I like the back end, which is a massive improvement over it’s predecessor’s ill-conceived bulbous arse, and I like how the whole car looks either like a regular hatchback that’s been lowered and stretched into a sports car, or a hot hatch so powerful it looks like it has motion blur when standing still. It’s a very unique look and Renault have done well with it. The only problem I have with the entire exterior is that the front end, with it’s squished form factor and enormous Renault badge, looks a bit like it’s about to sneeze. If you can get past that particular foible better than I can, then this might be the car for you, especially as the rest of the styling make it probably the sportiest-looking car here.
The interior is quite nice, too, if a little bit workmanlike. The styling is consistent, the sweeping, arcing lines do an excellent job of mirroring the exterior and the trip computer, if you take it, is definitely one of the better-looking and more discreet options on the market. My biggest problem is with the wheel and dials, which just look bog-standard Renault and just seem to be an oasis of dullness where this car needs it least, right in front of the driver. Everything else does a decent job of continuing the exterior’s message about this being a fun, sporty alternative to the mainstream, but those dials just sort of sit there and, well, don’t. You’d think they could have bumped up the price a little and gotten in a designer to do them some sporty dials, as the rest of the package would definitely justify it, but they haven’t and so here we are. Still, it’s a car that looks like it belongs on a racetrack and it’s yours for the price of £17,645 and having to spend your life looking at some naff dials. It’s not a huge price to pay.
Number 4: Seat Leon (from £15,850)
If you’re looking for a car that looks mean and sporty without spending a great deal of money, the Seat Leon is probably the best choice. The manufacturer has form for aggressive styling on their mid-size hatchbacks – previous Leons being a favourite of the more discerning boy racer – and with the current incarnation looking more like an angry A3 than a Fiesta, the Leon’s selling point is that for less than sixteen grand you can have a car that talks the hot hatch talk even if it doesn’t walk the walk. The price you pay for the gorgeous rear window line and the angry eyebrows over the front and rear lights is that the interior looks rather uninspired. Seas of grey plastic and ugly seats abound, and while none of it is neccessarily bad, it’s just bland.
Similarly priced models from Ford and other manufacturers go out of their way to make you feel like you’re piloting a rocket ship, with sweeping lines and glowing button clusters to soothe your childhood Star Trek fantasies. Seat’s offering is… adequate. It’s just there. I understand that this is a bit of a niggle, but this is an article about pretty cars, and it’s quite a jarring contrast between the exceptionally pretty and aggressive exterior with the budget-family-hatchback insides. There’s just nothing in there that looks fun, and that really does let the side down. That said, this is still an exceptionally pretty car, and certainly pretty enough to take the number four spot on our list. If you want to look rough and tough without breaking the bank then this is the car for you. Especially if you live up to the Leon’s boy racer heritage, bump the budget up to a round £16,000 and get some cheap tints that hide the slightly crap interior.
Number 3: Hyundai i20 Coupe (from £12,725)
Whisper it quietly, but with a little negotiation and a willing salesman, it’s possible to get a good-looking small hatchback for less than twelve thousand pounds. The hatchback in question isn’t a used Fiat 500 (perish the thought), but the new Hyundai i20 Coupe, the sportier version of the Korean manufacturer’s middle child. With the i10 being just a little too cheap and the i30 being a bit too ponderous, the i20 nestles right in the sweet spot between the two and is, with the attractive styling tweaks the Coupe version provides, a Hyundai you might actually want to own. The Seoul-based car company doesn’t have a great record with budget hatchbacks (the i20’s predecessor, the Getz, was a horrible little car) but, along with the rest of their range, they seemed to have turned it around and made themselves a genuinely viable challenger to their Japanese rivals.
So then, the i20 Coupe. With the snub nose, low roof line and stubby little rear spoiler, it’s a real terrier of a car. Big flared wheel arches give it a swagger that budget hatchbacks like this rarely have the heavy, frowny-face eyebrows over the front and rear lights make it look like it really means business. Despite all this, it’s diminutive size means it doesn’t look angry or aggressive, it just look like a puppy that wants to play. You can almost picture it bounding down an A-road chasing it’s bigger, angrier rivals, never really catching up but having enough fun in the chasing that it doesn’t really mind. If that was the look Hyundai was going for then they’ve nailed it head on – this really is a fun looking car. I’d drive one, and I’d have to spend twenty minutes folding myself in and out of it for the privilege.
Inside, the Koreans have done an excellent job of making a small cabin feel open and airy. The dashboard is tastefully laid out, the controls all match one another and the two-tone colour scheme really makes a lie of the price. In fact, it’s probably my second favourite of all the interiors here, and it’s even more impressive given just how little they’re charging you for it. Yes, you could argue it’s a bit lacking in features – there’s no satnav as standard, no trip computer of any kind, no dual-zone-climate-control rubbish – but it’s nice to just sit in and drive. Fair play to Hyundai, the i20 Coupe might be a little basic for a lot of people given what we’ve come to expect from our cars, but it’s a nice little car to be in and to be seen in, and while the lack of features would damn other cars in this list, for just north of twelve grand, there’s not much room to quibble.
Number 2: Alfa Romeo Giulietta (from £18,240)
At number 2, it’s the latest effort from the perennial budget beauty favourites at Alfa Romeo. The 2014 model is slightly heavier on the nose than it’s predecessor but it still looks like what would happen if you showed an Old Master a picture of a sweeping Italian back road and asked him to paint a car to fit. The front looks eager and itching to be driven, the balance and subtle creasing of the profile are beautiful, and the rear brings the whole package together with some bold, strong lines that add a real sense of purpose that might otherwise be lacking.
The interior is gorgeous too. Trimmed in black with leather seats and brushed-effect inlays, driving the Giulietta is like being ferried around in the VIP booth from a particularly stylish cocktail bar. There’s a real sense of togetherness about the interior, like every aspect was designed to fit an overall aesthetic instead of just hurling controls at a dashboard like in plenty of other cars at this price point. If I were to nitpick, the dials for the air conditioning are a little bold and the switches above and below them feel a little plasticky, but none of that takes away from the Alfa being a very nice place to be.
Overall it’s a strong package. If they hadn’t ballsed up the nose and made it look like a 2010-vintage Giulietta peering at itself in the back of a spoon, it might have topped the lot. It’s still a gorgeous piece of machinery to park in your driveway, and it also comes with the boost of petrolhead credibility that comes with driving an Alfa Romeo, but it’s not quite the most beautiful car you can have on your drive for less than £20,000.
That title goes to a car from a slightly more unexpected source.
Number 1: Mazda 3 Fastback (from £17,295)
Looking around at it’s beaten challengers, it’s clear that if you want to make a pretty car for not very much money, you make a hatchback. The small form factor and (relatively) low expectations mean there’s less metal to style and more compromises to be made for better looks. It’s much, much harder to make a good-looking cheap saloon – a bigger body, a style that lends itself far too easily to ponderousness, and a much longer list of expectations – more legroom, a bigger boot and a better feel on long rides to name just three. That’s why Mazda’s fastback version of the 3 is so impressive; it’s a big car, with big responsibilities, that still manages to be drop-dead gorgeous along with it.
Mazda’s style department have been among the best in the business for years and almost any of their current lineup could have made it into this list, but it’s the fastback 3 that sticks out most of all. It just looks classy; if you took off the Mazda branding and told me this is a car that cost three times what it does and I’d believe you. Rather than looking at it’s direct competitors – the Ford Mondeo, the Vauxhall Insignia and so on – Mazda’s design geniuses have been looking at heavyweights like the Jaguar XF and the BMW M3, taking all their best moves and putting them on a car that’s a smidge over half the price. Sweeping lines, a nice rear and a low, shouty front-end that’s straight out of the M division playbook are all gorgeous features on a car that also comes with four doors, five seats and a solidly sized boot.
The interior’s nothing to sniff at either. It doesn’t have the cocktail chic of the Alfa, but it’s decently put together and Mazda’s central dial setup adds a hint of flair to a pleasant, functional setup. The only negative is the trip computer, which looks like someone has haphazardly glued one of Tesco’s cheap knock-off iPads to the dashboard, but it’s small enough to ignore and easy enough to operate that it won’t upset you too badly.
