And if they're transporting your children or other family members, they need to be dependable, too.

That's where the What Car? Reliability Survey can provide you with vital information on which are the best and worst newer small and city cars for reliability.

We asked more than 18,000 people to tell us about any faults their cars had suffered during the past 12 months, as well as how much it had cost to get problems fixed.

Those that had the fewest problems and were cheapest to fix gained the top scores, while those that languished in workshops for days on end and racked up expensive repair bills were penalised the most heavily.

So, here's our round-up of the best and worst small and city cars aged one to four years old: