Light car sales are growing steadily in the New Zealand market and it has been suggested by industry sources that this is due to both fleets and private buyers looking for small economical vehicles which offer the same specification as larger ones.
These are representative of the vehicles some organisations use for their pool cars so we wanted to get some honest feedback from the people who buy and manage these on behalf of some of New Zealand’s largest fleets.
During the past four and a half years we have tested many of these vehicles individually but when such vehicles are placed in a back-to-back situation there is greater opportunity to candidly compare their behaviour and design. 
The judging team included Nick Auld from Custom Fleet, Andrew Shearer from FleetSmart, Dawn Goodeve from Coca-Cola Amatil, and Nigel Bell-Booth from Orix to drive the vehicles back-to-back, in conjunction with the Adrenalin team of John Oxley, Damien O’Carroll and Robert Barry.
The ranking system was the same as we employed in the April 2011 issue for the “Famous Five” crossover test. Each of the vehicles was scored out of 10 points in 10 categories, so theoretically each vehicle could score a maximum of 100 points.
Overall, as there were seven cars and seven judges, the final maximum was 700 points.
To be consistent with our format the drivers were asked to fill in an appraisal sheet with their comments after they had driven each of the vehicles over the same 30km test route before scoring the vehicle.
We asked the drivers to consider the following categories in their appraisal:
• Overall fitness for purpose
• Exterior styling and design
• Interior design and comfort
• Fit, finish and quality
• Ride and refinement
• Power train performance
• Road holding and handling
• Active and passive safety
• Environmental performance
• Value-for-money.
For this supermini shootout we evaluated:
• Ford Fiesta LX (1.6-litre) $25,490
• Hyundai i20 (1.4-litre) $26,990
• Mazda2 Sport (1.5-litre) $26,395
• Nissan Micra TI (1.5-litre) $24,100
• Skoda Fabia TSI (1.2-litre) $28,000
• Suzuki Swift GLX (1.4-litre) $23,990
• Volkswagen Polo Plus (1.4-litre) $28,500.