Not exactly an essential purchase, but worth a weekend rental.
Also, the graphics are really behind, even for 2001 it's pretty poor, almost everything is blurry, the textures are cheap and rugged and the environments are just terrible. You won't be going fast that much because unless you like being crushed between 2 buses and a lorry you will HAVE to go slow. There are a few good qualities like going through the levels, there are a handful of them and replay value is pretty decent. Even though you go slow most of the time, when you DO go fast it is a blast, speeding past taxis and swerving through traffic, you can never have enough of this.
With bad graphics, controls and sense of speed, the game is quite a struggle to recommend but get past these issues and you have a decent enough game to play through weekends, rent it first before considering a purchase.