Ah, the U-VA - such a nice car to have on the test fleet. I've pretty much been the only one driving it for the last few months, and I can honestly say that I've enjoyed having it. It's a very good city car - small enough to be able to manoeuvre (and park) in crowded conditions, yet roomy enough to seat five in comfort. Friends who've sat in the U-VA have invariably reacted positively to the car, commenting favourably about its roominess, its looks and the comfortable ride on offer. Indeed, a couple of them are in the market for a large hatch and may even end up buying one. Er, this is where I have to step in with a few words of caution.

You see, although I have mainly nice things to say about the car, it hasn't been entirely free of niggles. Yes, it has a fairly refined engine and a smoothly-shifting gearbox (much better than the one on the Aveo sedan). Yes, it's easy to drive in almost all traffic and road conditions. Yes, it's one of those cars that you feel comfortable with and which grows on you the longer you drive it.

None of this, however, is an excuse for malfunctioning power windows (both the rear ones packed up one at a time), a blown ECU (almost as soon as the car arrived in our fleet), a jammed handbrake (admittedly after the car had been parked for a few days, in wet weather), the A/C fogging up the lower section of the windscreen, a busted petrol-cap cover and fuel mileage that never went above 9 kpl. We haven't had any complaints from other U-VA owners, so we're putting the faults down to this particular car; nonetheless, they were irritants in an otherwise pleasant driving experience. The nice people at GM service were prompt in their dealings' with us, it has to be said, even though all the niggles didn't go away after remedial measures were attempted. Overall? A likeable, easy-to-use car that, in our case, was let down slightly by reliability issues.