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Best hot hatches 2021

Hot-hatches are cut-price performance-car superstars guaranteed to put a smile on your face. And the best hot hatches are the ones that are both grin-inducing and that you can live with as your daily car all year round. These are our favourites...
Toyota-GR-Yaris-025-2-1

1. Toyota GR Yaris

The Toyota GR Yaris is basically a rally car for the road – it’s fast and extremely good fun to drive. There are more practical hot hatches if that matters, though. But in reality, this is the most fun you can have on four wheels.
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2. Honda Civic Type R

2. Honda Civic Type R

The Honda Civic Type R’s boy racer looks have made it the source of some controversy, but that loud styling matches the hatchback’s performance. It’s incredibly fun to drive, yet is comfy and practical. It has a big boot, cosy seats and feels smooth on the motorway.
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3. Mercedes AMG A45

3. Mercedes AMG A45

The Mercedes-AMG A 45 has a stonking 421hp engine and a drift mode that’ll put a smile on your face. It doesn’t sound as good as the previous model, mind you, and some alternatives are even more fun to drive.
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4. Audi RS3 Sportback

4. Audi RS3 Sportback

The Audi RS3 isn’t just faster and easier to live with than most high-performance hot hatches, it also has one of the classiest interiors around too. Don’t expect all this to come cheap, mind you.

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5. Hyundai i30 N

5. Hyundai i30 N

The Hyundai i30 N is a great-to-drive, quick and practical hot hatch, but you might wish alternatives’ more eye-catching looks and faster straight-line performance.
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6. BMW M135i

6. BMW M135i

The BMW M135i is a high quality and practical hot hatch, but BMW fans may miss the six-cylinder engine and rear-wheel drive of the previous version.
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7. Ford Focus ST

7. Ford Focus ST

The Ford Focus ST is the quickest hot hatch Ford sells and it’s one of the most practical fast family cars around. Some less roomy alternatives are a little quicker, however.

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8. Volkswagen Polo GTI

8. Volkswagen Polo GTI

The Volkswagen Polo GTI is impressively quick yet is comfy for a small hot hatch. It’s quite posh inside but it doesn’t look very exciting and alternatives are more fun to drive.

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9. Ford Fiesta ST

9. Ford Fiesta ST

The Ford Fiesta is superb fun to drive and comes with a decent amount of kit as standard. Other hot hatches look more distinctive and are more practical, however.

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10. Suzuki Swift Sport

10. Suzuki Swift Sport

The Suzuki Swift Sport is slightly cheaper than most other hot hatches, if not quite as fast. It’s a lot of fun to drive and you get plenty of standard equipment, but it does feel a bit cheap inside and the the boot is a bit small.

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11. Skoda Octavia vRS

11. Skoda Octavia vRS

The Skoda Octavia vRS blends the standard Octavia’s practical, well-built interior with a powerful engine and sportier driving characteristics. That said, other hot hatches are more exciting.

Read our review

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