The big test: Britain’s next top model

And the winner is: the Ford Fiesta! Thanks for playing, good night everybody! That’s what the charts say. In 2019, the Fiesta was once again Britain’s favourite car. This version’s into its third year on sale, but Ford still shifted 77,883 of them.

However, cast your eye a little wider and consider Europe together, as is unfashionable these days, then the Fiesta gets properly walloped by the Renault Clio. It’s Europe’s best-selling car – eight years, on the bounce. The Clio is a phenomenon, beating the mighty Fiesta down into fourth place on the continent. The Opel Corsa – still stubbornly a Vauxhall on these pleasant pastures, thank-you-very-much – only just scrapes into Europe’s top 10. The onslaught of crossovers has booted it out of the bestseller list over here.

So, the new Renault Clio, emboldened – and sitting atop a fresh, lighter, roomier platform shared with the Captur – is out to take a scalp. The all-new, almost all-French Vauxhall Corsa – which is actually a Peugeot