In the UK companies usually sell a trim of their economy hatchbacks that have the same 100hp-ish engine but have lower, harder suspension for more spirited driving.
I think it's to target young drivers who can't have a lot of power but still want something fun (eg me). Pretty much as warm as a hatch gets
I went with a corsa D SRi (don't get a limited edition. The 1.2 is slow as fuck) because depreciate really heavily in the first few years. Eg mine had 27k on the clock, 3 years old and was just over a third of what it cost new.
Also, it's not a fiat Panda. That's a major selling point.