AM has teamed up with What Car? Connect, the data marketing and insight service, to produce a monthly look at used car sales and target price data.

Each month, we’ll feature a Connect report on one sector of the market, prepared exclusively for AM.

And each month, What Car? produces what it calls its 'target price' analysis based on the deals it says buyers can make in the showroom.

Today, we look at the city car segment.

City cars: small cars, few discounts

A few years back the city car segment offered little choice and was dominated by the Ford Ka and Fiat Panda.

These days there’s plenty of variety, but despite the competition, What Car’s Target Price intelligence reveals relatively low discount levels.

The average is 6.2% - or £678 – the lowest among the What Car? market segments.

That level has been consistent for the past three months, mirroring the high level of interest in city cars. 

Easily the most searched-for city car review on What Car’s website is the VW Up, followed by the recently-updated Hyundai i10, these two well ahead of the Vauxhall Adam, Fiat 500, Chevrolet Spark and Kia Picanto.

If you’re wondering why the relatively unknown Spark is being widely researched, it’s because it’s a striking exception to the low-level discounting.

Now that Chevrolet is withdrawing from the UK it’s offering big discounts, in the Spark’s case an 18.3%, £1633 price slice.

The Spark is not alone, however – the Suzuki Alto (17.8%, £1400 off), Ford Ka (9.8%, £1147 off) and Chrysler Ypsilon (8.8%, £1146 off) are also available with keen deals.

So is the Vauxhall Adam, but this offer wrapped as a zero-percent interest hire-purchase contract over five years, saving £185 for every £1000 borrowed - a strong incentive.

Other city car offers include an £110-per-car saving on the Citroen C1 1.0i VT, a £750 finance deposit on most Ford Kas and 3% discounts on the new i10.

But models with strong reputations – the Up and siblings, the Fiat 500 and Renault’s electric Twizy – see minimal discounting.

> What Car? Connect