My judgement is based on following grounds:

We’ve got lots of good cars this year, and even the less-good ones have charm. So I have spread my points around them all.

But with a clear winner: the Fiesta. It’s fun to drive like a small car should be. And yet it’s also remarkably mature. All the controls feel beautifully engineered, the cabin furniture has fine visual and tactile quality, it’s generally refined (except for motorway engine noise on the petrol versions). Ford decided to sacrifice rear accommodation and seat-fold versatility in order to add style and remove to weight and cost. That’s the right decision for most buyers.

The Golf has some superb top-end engines which pair refinement with performance – kudos to the 2.0TDI and 1.4 Twincharger. The seven-speed DSG is great, the adaptive damping works well. But the Golf looks dull and the versions without the pricey drivetrains and equipment actually are dull. Its rival the Megane would score better if it wasn’t so noisy. It’s fun to drive and Renault has made strides in engines and perceived quality. The three-door looks really swish.

The Insignia and Superb both feel like they’re more expensive than they are, and drive nicely enough. They’ve got class and quality. I’ll take the Insignia though: it’s more interesting to look at and to be in. Of course the biggest difference is rear seat space - the Insignia is cramped for the class, the Skoda gigantic. But a huge rear seat is seldom a successful selling point, which is why the Insignia’s predecessor’s LWB version has not been replaced.

The Skoda’s Twindoor is complicated to open as a hatchback, but it will only be used that way a few times a year when the owner is loading something really bulky. The rest of the time they’ll use it as a regular boot lid so the complication won’t matter.

Last of the big cars is the Citroën. It’s peaceful to drive but no fun, partly because the steering is oddly unprogressive. The Hydractive suspension’s advantages are too thin: it absorbs big bumps well but fidgets over small ones. Still, the estate version is well-placed to take advantage of self-levelling.

I love the little Alfa’s engine, its hungry attitude to corners and its interior style. But there’s no way you can pretend it has the all-round polish of the small Ford.