THE Suzuki Celerio city car replaced the Alto and the Splash in one fell swoop for the Japanese company and it comes with plenty of equipment straight out of the box.

It also has five doors as standard and enough interior space to carry four adults in reasonable comfort - something which most city cars would struggle with.

Needless to say, it's also very cheap to run in every way, apart from group seven insurance, which is a bit higher than cars like the Citroen C1 and lowliest VW Polo.

But it offers similar performance to the C1 and is way ahead of the Polo and of most other city cars. It is also great value secondhand.

There's just one engine on offer - a 1.0-litre three cylinder petrol producing 67bhp and driving the front wheels through a slick changing five-speed gearbox.

It's smooth and reasonably quiet unless pressed, but becomes a little raucous towards the top end because at this level, soundproofing is not a major concern.

Because of the car's light weight, performance is quite acceptable from such a small engine, with the zero to 60 miles an hour sprint taking 13.4 seconds. It's well able to keep up with the flow of traffic on the motorway and I‘ve done trips of over 200 miles in one without a bother.

Of course, this car is not about performance - it's about economy and minimal emissions and this is where it really scores, because it is the most economical small petrol car on the market.

There are two versions of the engine available, both of which have the same power output.

The standard car is capable of 65.7mpg with emissions of 99 grammes per kilometre, but the Dualjet version ups the ante to a superb 78.4mpg and just 84g/km.

The manual five-speed is very good and easy to use, but there is also an automated manual with a fully automatic option that can be driven by those who have an auto-only license and it's just as economical as the manual.

The road-holding is good enough to be engaging and there is reasonable feel from the steering, helping towards well-balanced handling.

Where it scores highly over most city cars is the very good quality of ride. It takes potholed and much repaired town and city roads in its stride at low speeds and can even smooth out a rough country road taken much faster.

There are five full seatbelts, but three adults in the back would be a squeeze. There's good space for four however, with enough head and leg room in the rear for one six footer like me to sit behind another.

Add to that a boot that is the largest in the class at 254 litres and you end up with a very practical small car package.

There are four trim levels in all and even the most basic SZ2 gets a height adjustable driver's seat and folding rear seat, traction control, front electric windows and central locking.

The SZ3 adds air con and alloys, while the top SZ4 has electric mirrors, rear electric windows and front foglights.

Pay about £3,800 for a '15 15-reg SZ2, or £5,850 for a '17 17-reg SZ3 Dualjet.