Should you buy a Vauxhall Astra?

Yes, with provisos. To choose one over a contemporary Ford Focus or SEAT Leon, you’ll need to get it at a heavy discount. If you can, opt for one of the facelifted post-2019 cars as they all have incredibly efficient engines, and Vauxhall had hammered out most of the reliability and quality issues by that point.

Prices are approaching rock-bottom, which means there are bargains to be had and, if you can find a well cared-for example that has had all its recall work done, we’re sure you’ll get many miles of trouble-free motoring from the car. If you buy a bad one, though, you’ll be signing yourself up for a hurricane of headaches.

We even like the way the Vauxhall Astra drives. Vauxhall put the car on a diet between its sixth and seventh generations – and the result of its efforts was a hatchback that not only drank less fuel, but also tackled corners with greater confidence. It still can’t match up to the Mk3 Focus for outright driving fun, but it’s a good effort.