Holden Tigra 1.8L 2005 review

"What is it?" inquires one man with his young granddaughter. "It looked pretty smart when you drove in."

"Is that the new Holden," asks another inquisitive motorist at a set of traffic lights. "Jeez, it looks pretty neat."

Although many of these positive comments were coming from men, Holden expects 95 per cent of Tigra customers to be female.

It's a real looker with the top up or down, but looks better with it down. Lowering the roof is done electronically, albeit with the manual release of two latches and the push of a button on the side-door handle. The handbrake must be on and it takes 18 seconds.

The Tigra is powered by a 1.8-litre DOHC 16-valve Ecotec four-cylinder engine, producing 92kW of power and 165Nm of torque on premium unleaded. Start-off acceleration is good around the city as is overtaking power when needed on the open road.

It runs the same underpinnings as the sporty Barina SRi, sitting on a specially- tuned chassis with sports-tuned dampers, reinforced front stabiliser bars, complex front suspension mounts and a hydroformed rear axle. While the Tigra has a sporty feel, the suspension does well to iron out all but the worst bumps.

It is happy to tackle the twisties, holding its own with only a minor hint of bump steer on the rougher roads.

It is just as comfortable and easy to manoeuvre in the city, especially with its tiny 3.9m length. With the roof up, the cargo space measures a reasonable 308 litres; this is reduced to 147 litres when the roof is down.

The Tigra also features a quirky electro-hydraulically controlled boot that opens and closes automatically at the touch of a button.

It closes in two directions. It tilts backwards when opening or closing the roof, and forwards when accessing the boot. Sensors ensure one function cannot be activated until the other is complete. A beep sounds whenever the boot has been closed.

During testing, the Tigra's on-board trip computer hovered between 8.0 litres per 100km and 8.4 litres per 100km for average fuel consumption.

The interior is funky, but practical. You sit in, not on, the two-tone sports seats which are six-way adjustable for recline, slide and height. The leather-wrapped steering wheel is tilt-adjustable and features controls for the audio. The on-board computer is controlled by a central dial on the dashboard (or the steering wheel).

The Tigra has no shortage of safety, with driver, passenger and side airbags and breakaway brake and clutch pedals to protect against lower limb injury.

It also has seat belts with belt-force limiters and pyrotechnic pre-tensioners and anti-submarining ramps to reduce the risk of sliding under the seat belt in a crash.

Perhaps the only drawback of this funky car is the lack of an auto transmission.

Holden admits its closest rival, the Peugeot 206CC has quite a high take-up rate on the automatic version. But Opel — Holden's sister company in Germany — simply cannot supply one for the 1.8-litre engine. The short of it is, if you want a fun drive, learn to use the left leg.