By faux AIMS TO CARVE NICHE IN CITY

WILL I be seeing you at the London Motorcycle show at the ExCel centre?

It kicks off on February 14 and runs right through the weekend.

Most of the major bike manufacturers will have stands, there’s also live action in the Michelin Thunderdome.

A host of biking’s great and good will be there, too, including the great John McGuinness (who is bringing his own pub with

BACK in 2003, someone at Rover had a brainwave.

They said: “Let’s put some grey plastic on the Rover 200 and sell it as the Streetwise.”

Why not? The company was on its knees and anything was worth trying to bring in a few quid. And that’s how the faux offroader was born.

Many others have followed Rover’s example. VW made a Polo Dune that was similar in concept, and more recently Dacia gave its Sandero the grey plastic treatment and called it the

Stepway.

It was an instant success and outsells the ordinary version.

Now we have the Volkswagen Group’s latest offering: the Audi A1 Citycarver. It’s a bit of a daft name, but then all these city-living pretend 4x4 hatches have daft names.

Our A1 Citycarver is in an ordinary white rather than the more dramatic orange of the car used in adverts and brochures.

Grey plastic adorns the wheel arches, while under the bumpers there are pretend bash plates. Audi has given the Citycarver the same hexagonal grille design it uses on its real Q-series SUVs. But I doubt many potential owners will spot it even if they own a Q2. The final “must” for these urban warriors is extra ride height. Audi obliges with an added 50mm. That might actually be useful if, like me, you have a habit of reversing over kerbs in car parks. What the A1 Citycarver doesn’t have, which technically it could because Audi make a Quattro A1, is four-wheel drive. But I suspect that would make the car too expensive for this segment.

Potential Citycarver buyers can choose between a 1.0-litre threecylinder petrol engine producing 114bhp and a 1.5-litre four-cylinder that produces 148bhp and is him). Tickets are £18 for the three days when booked online in advance.

Under-15s go free and there is also free parking for bikes.

Head to mcnmotorcycle show.com for tickets. also petrol. Our test car is fitted with the lower-powered engine and I see no reason to go for the more powerful and expensive option, as the Citycarver goes well enough with 114bhp.

Especially if you do most of your carving in the city.

There’s a choice of automatic DSG gearbox or six-speed manual. Our car has the latter, bringing the price in at £22,695 without options (it’s £23,580 with the automatic gearbox).

There’s just the one trim level to keep things simple but the Citycarver is almost £2,000 more expensive than the equivalent “normal” A1. Since the plastic add-ons have no practical benefit apart from a small amount of paintwork protection – and the raised height without a 4x4 system or at least an off-road formatted traction control system, giving the A1 no mud-bashing skills – whether or not you think the Citycarver is worth the money will be down to its styling.

That extra two inches of ground clearance makes the Citycarver roll a little more in corners but not enough to make it annoying or leave you seasick.

And all that fiddling with the suspension hasn’t spoiled the A1’s comfortable ride either.

Inside, nothing differs from the regular A1 although you’ll feel a bit higher off the ground.

The fit and finish is good and the car is impressively spacious. Tall adults will find the front roomy, the rear less so, but it’s still bigger inside than a Mini.

Ford is also in on the “hatch-onstilts” game and uses the suitably meaningless (for this type of car) “Active” name for its high-rise versions of the Focus and Fiesta.

The Fiesta Active, which is the Citycarver’s natural rival, is cheaper than the Audi but offers just as much.

Talking of rivals, if you really want to go down the crossover route you might as well go the whole hog and buy a wellequipped Volkswagen T-Cross or even T-Roc for similar money.

That said, at least the Citycarver is still a small car that’s easy to park around town as it has only grown in an upward direction.