Best hot hatches 2024 – the most fun, and the one to avoid

A hot hatch is a car many will buy with their head as well as their heart, because they must be as capable on the school or supermarket run as they are at raising pulses on a winding road.

That duality can be tricky to achieve, because much of what makes a car good around town – a soft ride and hushed engine – is often the precise opposite to what you’d want on a twisting back road.

To determine the best hot hatches, our reviewers drive hundreds of miles in each model, both on a wide variety of roads and our test track. And we cram them full of passengers and luggage to assess practicality, then we examine their fuel economy, value for money and reliability.

After testing every hot hatch on sale, our expert team of reviewers have determined that the Mercedes-AMG A45 is the best hot hatch you can buy. To find out which version we recommend, though, as well as which other hot hatchbacks are worth considering – and which aren't – you'll need to keep reading.

Below you can see the ten best hot hatchbacks on sale today, and we’ll point you in the direction of our hot hatch deals pages to help you get the very best price.

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