I need to replace my faithful, practical, but dull, 14 year old, 70,000 mile Mazda Demio Escape, which was very well suited to its main task of lots of short journeys with two people and a large dog. I need something similarly sized and versatile but preferably better to drive than the Mazda, which would be comfortable on occasional longer trips to the continent.

I would buy second hand and the budget is about £12,500. I have tried, and like, the Ford B-Max 1.0 EcoBoost 100PS; is the 125 version likely to be appreciably better for my purposes and what other vehicles should I be looking at?