Mitsubishi’s Mirage supermini has become the lighter, faster, more efficient Mirage Juro. It’s smarter looking than its predecessor and extremely well equipped, though that has made it a little more expensive than the original version of this car was.

Still, you get an awful lot for what you pay - around £12,000 - ensuring that this model remains an interesting option for the budget-minded driver.

For the Juro version, Mitsubishi is focusing on the original Mirage model’s 79bhp 1.2-litre powerplant, provided as before with either manual or CVT automatic transmission that takes the drag out of city driving. This engine is quite perky, in manual guise getting to 60mph in 11.7 seconds and running onto 112mph. As for running costs, expect around 100g/km of CO2 and around 65mpg on the combined cycle.

To create this Juro model, the designers sharpened the Mirage’s look and feel. The bonnet now has a power bulge, the upper grille is wider and fitted with a mesh background and a chrome surround, while the headlights are restyled Bi-Xenon HiD units. At the rear, the style upgrade sees a revised bumper shape, separate slim horizontal reflectors and C-shaped LED combination lamps. The overall dynamic look has been further enhanced with an elongated roof spoiler as well as a wide-spoke 15-inch wheel design, which fills the wheel arches better than before.

Inside, the seats look smarter, with ‘three-dimensional knitting’ seat fabric, plus contrasting stitching available in full black. There’s a revised steering wheel, too, with piano-black inserts and chrome accents. The instrument panel has been refreshed with a more subtle design featuring white illumination and a white-on-black dial background.As before, this car is well packaged, with decent interior space front and rear.

And in summary? Well, there are Citycar segment models that are very cheap to run. Others that can take a reasonable amount of luggage. And some that claim to be able to seat five people. But finding one contender in this class that can do all of these things pitched in at a reasonable price is a lot harder than you might think. But if these are your priorities, then this Mitsubishi will meet them.

CAR: Mitsubishi Mirage Juro range
PRICES: £11,554 - £13,554
INSURANCE GROUP: 19
CO2 EMISSONS: 99-100g/km
PERFORMANCE: [manual] 0-62mph 11.7s / Max Speed 112mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [manual] (combined) 65.7mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Active Stability & Traction Control/Dual front, side and curtain airbags/ Auto Stop & Go/Hill start assist
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height mm 3795/1665/1505