Economy motoring used to be quite a drudge. You paid a little bit of money and in return got a little bit of car with a little bit of performance thrown in if you were lucky. Things have improved slightly over the years. You still pay little money but nowadays get a lot more car with semi-decent performance, good fuel economy, and an equipment list that wouldn't have disgraced a luxury model a few years back. A good illustration of this is the Chevrolet Kalos 1.2S five door. It retails at £7,695 and if your haggling skills are not much cop you can immediately save £500 through buying the three door version. But learn to bargain hard. You could then get the five door for probably less than £7,000 - tell the dealer you want the money off they were doing in March. When I bought my first new car in 1989, it was a five door Ford Fiesta Popular Plus. The list price, as I remember, was a little over £7,000. Ford let me have it cheap and then dropped the model from the range, bless them. So, for around the same money and 18 years later, you can still get a five door family car. But now, if it's like the Kalos, it comes with twin front airbags (not even heard of in 1989), central locking, power steering, electric front windows, a CD player, anti-lock brakes, rear wiper, tinted glass, split folding rear seat, and a tilt adjust steering column. It also comes with a good fuel consumption. My old Fiesta was a 1.1 litre that struggled to best 30 mpg thanks to its puny engine and four speed gearbox. After I had a Janspeed exhaust fitted to boost its meagre energy levels it improved - and sounded much better, too. These days the 1.2 litre Kalos is far faster and can top 40 mpg with ease as you stir it along using its five speed gearbox. It's bigger, too, and while it won't set your world alight you have to remember that its top speed of 98 mph and 0-62 mph time of 13.7 seconds would have been regarded as unbelievable for a small family car not long ago. Chevrolet's message with the Kalos marketing effort is that it gives you supermini size for European city car budget - actually for Brazilian city car budget when you bear in mind the price of the three door Volkswagen Fox with comparable equipment. The Chevrolet badge is being worked up across the world by General Motors as its budget brand and there can be no shame in taking advantage of it when four million other car buyers a year are doing the same. (OK, so some are buying rip-roaring Corvettes, but only a handful.) Louis Chevrolet, who co-founded the car maker in 1911 with Billy Durant, an American who went on to start General Motors, was actually a European engineer and things have come full circle with the Kalos for, although it's made in South Korea, it was designed by Italdesign in Italy. This accounts for the fact that it doesn't look half bad whether you are inside it or outside. The three door is really stylish but even the five door looks decent and non-budget. I have to admit that for £7,000 plus you are not getting the best build quality in the world and some of the materials look a little low rent but what do you expect? If I had to drive round all day in a Kalos I probably wouldn't complain, although I might be a little bit bored. It drives well enough and is a decent steer for a small family car. Chevrolet reckons it will take five adults, but I'm not convinced having sat in the back. Maybe Koreans, but not fat Europeans like me. It's still great value, though. Maurice Hardy Annette's View Chevrolet knew it was not going to set the world alight with the Kalos, but that was never its intention. What it is doing is helping to get the world mobile, although with everyone banging on about global warming is that a good idea? It might not be, but then if I am privileged enough to drive, and do so every day, I can't complain about other people doing it, too. At least cars like the Kalos make less impact on the environment than running around in some old banger that spews fumes all over the place - if you leave aside the environmental cost of actually making it. The Kalos is quite roomy for a small car and comfortable too, more so in the front than the back. The fascia is pleasingly designed, without too much fiddly detail apart from the Blaupunkt radio which has buttons that are far too small. Family users will appreciate the ISOFIX mountings in the back for child seats, now more important than ever after the recent child seat law changes, but the small boot with high lip beneath the tailgate will not be so enthusiastically received. Still, if you want interior space then something has to give and you can fold the rear seats when a bigger boot area is needed. Car: Chevrolet Kalos 1.2S five door Does it fit your ego?... 0-62 mph: 13.7 secs Top speed: 98 mph Bhp: 71 @ 5400 rpm Torque: 77 lb ft @ 4400 rpm ...and your wallet?... Price: £7,695 Urban: 33.2 mpg Extra urban: 54.3 mpg Combined: 44.1 mpg CO2 emissions: 153 g/km Insurance Group: 3 Best bits: small money; reasonable space; great economy.