Vauxhall Corsa (2020-present)

Vauxhall Corsa prices from £9,480   Finance from £118 per month

Multiple generations of Vauxhall Corsa have been gleefully trundling along UK roads since John Major was prime minister and the television-owning public was checking the football scores on Teletext. Its mix of keen pricing, diminutive footprint and practicality has ensured it pops up towards the top of the UK's best-selling cars list pretty much every year since.

Now Vauxhall has changed ownership, however, becoming part of Groupe PSA (which owns Peugeot and Citroen), the fifth generation model has been developed surprisingly quickly for a car of such importance to the manufacturer.

Still, plenty of common parts shared with Peugeot and Citroen (both also owned by PSA) meant engineers could borrow bits and pieces to speed up the development process. In reality, this is very much a Peugeot 208 with its own look and the stylists have done a very good job to ensure new Vauxhall Corsa looks sportier and more purposeful on the road.

Prices start at £15,750 for the most basic SE models with a non-turbocharged 1.2-litre petrol engine, while the most expensive Ultimate Nav sits with a price tag of £25,990, that's a lot more than you'd have paid for Corsas past - you're looking at Volkswagen Golf territory here.

That price can be explained to an extent by the amount of new tech on board; even the most basic models come with a seven-inch colour touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. Most will opt for the sportier SRi trim, which sees more attention paid to racier interior flourishes, while the turbocharged 1.2 petrol is much more usable, thanks to 100hp and a slick six-speed manual or quick-shifting eight-speed automatic gearbox borrowed from Peugeot.

It weighs under 1,000kg, too, which is light, so it does feel nimble out on the road. Surprisingly, road noise is still kept to a minimum and refinement levels are high for a car of this size. The seats are comfortable and the turbocharged petrol and diesel offerings are perfectly good enough for long journeys.

Of course, customers can splash the cash on the very best of new Corsa, which sees things like 17-inch alloy wheels added, leather seats with massage function and clever IntelliLux LED Matrix Headlights that produce a huge amount of light and shuffle the beam around to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic while lighting as much of the road as possible.

Initial PCP finance deals from Vauxhall on the new Corsa are pricey, so if you have a smaller budget, going for a nearly-new model should prove much more affordable. As the previous Corsa wasn't a particularly good car, you're better off choosing a low-mileage Ford Fiesta, unless you want to cut costs as much as possible, in which case a top value used Vauxhall Corsa could make sense.

The Corsa’s mass appeal was always its cheap price tag, but this is no longer a cheap car and direct rivals now include the much more high-quality feeling Volkswagen Polo, the very enjoyable-to-drive Ford Fiesta and even the likes of the Audi A1 or Mini Hatchback.

It’s a tough act to follow, especially seeing as the new Corsa’s interior just can’t compete with some of the cars mentioned above in terms of build quality or feel. The Peugeot 208, upon which most of this car is based, sports a striking dashboard layout, looks similarly dramatic from the outside and features a very similar price tag.

An all-electric version could be an interesting alternative for buyers, seeing as the most potent models feature a usable 209-mile claimed range and prices start at around £30,000 for the lower powered 7.4kW versions - making it one of the cheapest electric cars on the market. However, £30,000 is still a huge amount of money for a small car, and those after a desirable compact electric car could get a far more upmarket, more desirable low-mileage 2019 BMW i3 from as little as £25,000.