Alpine A290 review

Prices run from £33,500 to £38,500, although if you value performance you’re in for at least £36,000, as that’s the entry price for the 217bhp version.

The base version is the GT and from there a £2,500 step up can either give you more kit (GT Premium) or more pace (GT Performance). The GTS combines both for £37,500, while another £1,000 up from there gives you the reassuring knowledge that you own one of the 1,955 Premiere Editions.

Us? We’d settle for a GT Performance as that comes with 19in wheels, heated sports seats, adaptive cruise control, rear parking sensors, reversing camera and wireless phone charging. Do you really need the tinted rear windows, blue brake calipers, leather seats and that Devialet sound system of the upgrade? We’d argue not. Mind you, the GTS comes with black snowflake alloys as standard.

The French flag on the C-pillar costs £70 (doesn’t Ferrari charge a grand for a prancing horse on the flank?), and if you want the hifi upgrade that’s £780 and includes Google integration. We’d have that. The colour choices, unfortunately, are pretty underwhelming (black, grey and white) so if you want iconic Apple Vision Blue you’re looking at £1,100. Another £350 on top of that for the contrast black roof.

Need something to justify the price walk up to a GTS? Like the Renault 5, if you get a specific plan from Octopus energy, you can unlock V2G capabilities where the car charges at off-peak rates, and if it’s still plugged in, sell electricity back to the grid in periods of high demand. Ker-ching!

Nevertheless, it represents reasonably good value. Our specced up £37,100 GT Performance can be yours for £405 a month (2.9 per cent APR) over 48 months if you put down £5,000. You might want to have a look at the electric Mini Cooper, though. Although you’ll need to fit a fair bit of kit to it to match the A290, the 218bhp Cooper SE starts at £29,905. And if you want power, there’s the 258bhp JCW electric from £34,905.