Review of the new Chevrolet Matiz Range

Small it may be but the Matiz citycar is of big importance for Chevrolet. Over 1.3 million examples of this car's predecessor now pound roads around the globe with up to 75% of buyers being women. The current MK2 version then, must improve on this legacy - and it's well prepared to do just that.

The first time you see one, you might already guess that this is a Matiz: the family likeness, especially from the side, is very evident and the cheeky front end still smiles away at you. This is also still a small car, in a sector where other rivals are growing into superminis. But if you wanted a supermini, you'd have bought one. Chevrolet feel with good reason that citycars should be small, so this car remains very compact - 1495mm wide and 3495mm long.

Of course, you don't want it to feel that small inside - and fortunately, this Matiz doesn't. As before, it comes with five doors, by no means a given in this class. All are wide-opening with low sills to aid easy entry and exit in tight supermarket carparks. So far so good then. Even the prices shouldn't put you off, ranging from the entry-level 0.8S model through to the 1.0SE version that most customers will probably choose. At the top of the range, laden with air-conditioning and alloy wheels, sits the 1.0SE+. This car has a different, free, fun and chuckable joie de vivre very unlike the more responsible but ultimately rather dull feel of something in the Fiesta/Corsa class. As with the original Matiz, it's hard to pin down exactly where this comes from. Probably, it's a combination of a more flexible design brief, the compact size and the cheeky styling.

"Sense and logic with a dash of spirit."

Chevrolet's Korean designers had to get serious however, when it came to tackling some of the failings of the original model, mostly centred around fuel consumption, safety and comfort. Let's start with fuel consumption. For such a tiny machine, the original Matiz simply wasn't as frugal as it should have been. In an effort to correct this, the engineers put their new design through the equivalent of an automotive slimming programme, as result achieving a weight saving of around 13 kilos. That, along with a sleeker 0.344 drag coefficient, has contributed considerably to fuel consumption across the board that's 15% better. The 1.0-litre model averages over 50mpg on the combined cycle while the 0.8-litre variant records nearly 57mpg and now emits just 119g/km of CO2, slipping it down to tax band B.

It can't have been easy for the designers to achieve those weight savings when at the same time, they had to make the car safer with far more widespread use (51% as opposed to 37%) of high strength steel. It was very necessary to do this however. In high winds with huge lorries roaring round you, it was easy to feel very vulnerable in the original Matiz. For a variety of reasons, this one feels much more substantial - and a lot safer as a result.

Which brings us on to comfort. You don't expect a citycar to cosset you like a luxury saloon but you do expect at least to be able to have a conversation with your passengers at motorway cruising speeds and not to make everyone feel sick when you're running late over twisting secondary roads. This Matiz can now deliver in both these areas thanks to improved noise insulation and a new torsion beam rear axle. It isn't very rapid in 0.8-litre guise (where 21.9s is required to get from rest to sixty) but the 14.1s figure for the 65PS 1.0-litre model many will choose should be quite adequate for most.

As a vehicle for the urban environment, this car simply must be easy to live with and as a result, stowage areas have been increased in size and quantity. There are drinks holders, a large glovebox and I found trays for maps, CDs and all the usual clutter that I seem to usually end up carting about with me. The passenger seat undertray was a nice touch and there's even a bespoke holder for your sunglasses neatly positioned above the driver on the plush SE+ version.

The fascia is adventurously styled with centrally mounted instruments sitting atop the plane of the dashboard and key indicators residing close to the driver's line of sight. Body coloured detailing is a key theme as is metallic brightwork on many surfaces. The days of cheap black and grey plastics have long gone, marking the company's confidence in product development. This development mirrors the way Japanese consumer product design developed in the Seventies. In order to be taken seriously, Japanese companies first aped the sober black and brushed metallic finishes of Western hi-fi manufacturers. It was only when they established themselves as a force in their own right that the Japanese let their imaginations run riot. This seems to be just the stage where Chevrolet's Korean manufacturing and design facility are at, with a new boldness and confidence about their work. There are even three colours for the instrument panel - blue, green and orange.

Whichever version you go for, low servicing and insurance costs and a likely 50mpg average all combine to create a three-year ownership cost of around 13 pence per mile, making the Matiz one of the UK's cheapest cars to run.

Overall then, a car which should continue to maintain Chevrolet's 10% share of the citycar segment. More importantly, with so many buyers of the original Matiz having been women, this car will continue to appeal to a female audience becoming more demanding by the day. Most good 'A sector' models are these days good enough to make you question the need for something supermini-sized. This one adds a dash of spirit into the equation too - which might be enough to make the difference, not only for traditional Matiz customers but for a whole host of new ones.