Any other cars I should consider?

Hard to say definitively until pricing is announced closer to its actual launch early next year, but the obvious one would be the Hyundai i30 hatch and Elantra sedan.

To our eyes, the Cerato sedan is a sharper looking thing than the Elantra, while it is also distinctly dynamically sharper, so if the hatch keeps that up (and there is no reason it shouldn’t) the hatch should give the i30 a serious run for its money. Depending, of course, on actual money.

There’s the obvious stuff too (Golf, Astra, etc), but there is a lot that is new (or coming soon) in this segment, with a new Ford Focus, the just revealed (and incredibly sexy) Mazda3, the upcoming Skoda Scala and, of course, the new – and remarkably good – Toyota Corolla.

But then most people will probably just go and buy a small SUV anyway. Which is their loss.