Lancia Ypsilon. (ip-see-lon)

I've taken delivery of another edition of CAR magazine today and in it there's a story about the Lancia Ypsilon.

To be honest it's a car that has very much been at the back of my mind since I first saw it last November at the MPH motor show and by that I mean it hasn't featured in my memory. It struck me at the time however because it was new Lancia and now seems the right time to talk about it.

I say it's a new Lancia but that's technically not true because in fact it's a new Chrysler that's been rebadged. Of course in turn it's a Fiat, at least in terms of its chassis and handling nature, the headline on my magazine reads "drives like a fiat". At least that's covered cornering for me.

But power, what of that? Chrysler reckons that the bottom rung Ypsilon with the 1.2l 4 cylinder engine wil be the most popular in the UK so I'll deal with that one. It produces a weedy 68bhp which is enough to get this rather large car to 60 in 14.5 seconds and to quote my favourite Youtuber Elpresador, I could write a novel by the time that thing hits 60. There would be swearing if I directly quoted Elpres by the way. By the time it hits its top speed you probably could've written three novels and you'll also be travelling at 102mph, so it breaks the 100 barrier - just. So it's not great in any regard.

I wouldn't expect styling to win back any browny points if I were you. I've just looked at it and I'm starting to feel just a little bit ill. It looks huge and that's because it rides on tiny wheels. It'd be like having a 7ft wrestler sitting on a scooter, it looks wrong. The grill is shaped to resemble a Y but instead looks like a V and isn't wide enough making it underwhelming and the lights seem to be squinting they are lost in so much metal and whatever you do, do not pick the option that allows you to have the bonnet in a separate colour to the rest because it looks crap.

The interior is terrible to. It has the instrument binnacle above the dash which leaves a baron featureless wasteland of plastic stretching out in front of you. It looks messy if I'm honest and I find little aesthetic appeal in the air vents being mounted deep behind the main dash and I don't like the dash expanding out into the cabin the way it does.  I have to say the whole thing feels tacky and chucked together at random.

The same can be said for the whole car really, I guess that's why it never featured in my memory. I think it's a shame that Lancia are being reintroduced to us with this car and I suppose I must talk about the price. It'll cost from £10,500 to £17,000 but you shouldn't find too much pain in running costs because the least economical engine does just over 50mpg and so far nobody has proved it doesn't do that. The problem is you could get an infinite number of cars better than the Ypsilon for less, I'm thinking Hyundai i10, Ford Ka, Skoda Fabia and even the Chevrolet Aveo.

A shame about this car really, in any case, thankyou for reading.