7/10SeatAlhambra£30,415 – £38,270Seat’s most complete car. It has no real weaknesses – but we just know you’d rather have the VW…
7/10VolkswagenSharan£29,910 – £40,290It’s big, expensive and not especially clever, but it is really, really good at ferrying lots of people about. Really, really quietly.
8/10SkodaKodiaq£25,875 – £43,155A Top Gear award winner in 2016, and rightly so – Skoda’s big crossover is all things to all families.
7/10FordMondeo Estate£25,675 – £33,825More grown up and all the better for it. Priced very keenly too - it's a smart shout.
8/10VolvoXC40£24,700 – £38,050Volvo has made something nicely distinctive here. It'd be impressive even if they'd been practicing for years
6/10KiaProceed£24,065 – £28,825A refreshing niche that ain’t a crossover, but not as sporty as billed
7/10Peugeot308 SW£21,870 – £29,890This is among the best compact estates on sale (partly because it isn’t really compact at all).
6/10KiaCee'd Sportswagon£19,625 – £24,585The Kia Cee'd is the car that lobs the paving slab of reality into the windscreen of preconception. It might be a straight clone of a Toyota/Ford/VW hatch, but it’s a damn good one.
6/10Alfa RomeoGiulietta Cloverleaf/QV£19,390 – £26,130A capable machine, but more GT than hot hatch. Think mature rather than arm-wangly Italian
8/10VolkswagenGolf R£18,325 – £31,020One of the best all-round performance cars ever made. Fast, forgiving, and everyday-friendly
8/10VolkswagenGolf (Mk7)£18,325 – £31,020It defines this sector and should be its default buy. You simply can’t go wrong.
8/10VolkswagenGolf (Mk8)£18,325 – £31,020New eighth-gen Golf remains the lingua-franca of the hatch world. A finely polished machine
8/10VolkswagenGolf GTI (Mk7)£18,325 – £31,020Overlook the fact it’s so good that it’s almost joyless: the latest Golf GTI is very desirable indeed
8/10VolkswagenGolf Cabriolet£18,325 – £31,020After a classy cabrio but don't have Audi-like cash? Try this. GTI expensive but worth it; R perhaps not
8/10Volkswagene-Golf£18,325 – £31,020The e-Golf is an EV that works for most of us, most of the time. A truly convincing electric car.
