Should you buy one?

The Alpine A110 is an astonishingly good car. The A110 has clearly been designed, developed and fine tuned by people who are really passionate about driving. And for that reason alone, it’s worth serious consideration over a Porsche 718 Cayman.

That’s high praise indeed considering just how highly we rate the Porsche. But the A110 really is that good, and although £50k-plus seems like a lot of money to spend on a car from a maker your neighbours won’t have heard of, as soon as you drive the lightweight A110 on your favourite B-road, you’ll get it.

But what really makes the Alpine stand out is how well it works on UK roads. It’s compact, so you’ll feel confident driving it on narrow roads and in the middle of town, but it also rides really well (better than most mainstream hot hatches for instance), so those inevitable potholes and broken surfaces won’t bother it anywhere near as much as a Porsche Cayman or Toyota GR86.

Choosing which Alpine you want is a little trickier now the range has expanded, however, the good news is that the base A110 remains the pick of the line up for Britain’s roads, comfortable, now quite well-equipped, and not significantly more expensive than a high-end mainstream family SUV, while the few rivals it has have got steadily closer to ‘dream car’ pricing.

If you want more power, the 300hp A110S is immensely capable, and worth choosing over the GT purely because it retains the immersive, focused driving nature with everything dialled up a notch – though once equipped with the unique aero kit it does approach the cost of a Cayman, with the risk of higher depreciation. Unsurprisingly, that makes the A110 R a hard sell for us, especially as the lesser cars are more fun more of the time.

Although it isn’t quite as perfect as the Porsche, it has more heart, soul and feedback than its German rival. Is that a pragmatic reason to take the Alpine over the Porsche? No. But for keen petrolheads, it’s more than enough. And as such, we don’t blame you for buying one. In fact, we suggest searching for new and used examples on Parkers cars for sale.

What we like

Pretty much everything – the feel of it on the move, the size and usability of the A110, and the way it looks.

What we don’t like

The interior is well-trimmed with high-quality materials, but there’s no disguising the humble origins of its infotainment system and some of its switchgear – not something you’ll find in a Porsche 718 Cayman or a Toyota GR86.