Plus: Practical; easy to live with; good value
Minus: Handling may disappoint the enthusiastic driver
Summary: A long-running favourite with family buyers but now looking dated. The Astra fulfils most people's expectations of an inexpensive small family car thanks to affordable running costs. There's a huge choice of versions to suit most purposes but higher specification models would be the ones to seek out. Older cars may have been through many hands and possibly 'clocked', so be very wary if history is incomplete.