I suggest you also check out the Seat Leon 1.4 TSi preferably with the 150 PS engine. We drove the Mazda 3 2 litre having owned the Seat for a couple of years and it was poor, in truth it was worse than I expected. We recently looked at the Astra, the 1.4 in base trim pretty much met our requirements but there is one major issue with the car that stopped us even bothering with a drive. There is no facility to fit a spare in the boot without buying the raised floor kit. This reduces a boot that in truth is smaller than to Leon to one that is smaller than any class competitor. As an example, we bought the Skoda Fabia, its a class smaller but the boot has a full size wheel well and a bigger boot than the Astra. Vauxhall have made a real cock up with the design IMHO ruining a potentially good car.

With regards to the Seat we owned it for 4 years, had no issues, was comfortable and well equipped in SE trim and on the 16" wheels had a nice ride. For 12K you would get a 2 or 3 year old 1.4 but if you look at the 1.2 (its still way better than the Mazda) your 12K would get you a 1 year old example.

I think the OP is interested in the Astra specifically due to that price, which is extremely competitive!. I doubt an equivalent Leon of that age could be found for anywhere near that price (like the Mazda).

Having said that, i have no doubt that the Astra's price is due to the uncertainty of Vauxhall's future under the PSA group, so while you may make a big saving buying one now, it may not translate to much, if any, saving once you come to sell/trade in.

Just had a look at Motorpoint and the cheapest 1.4T SRi <1 year old are £10.6k. The cheaper ones the OP refers to are the 1.4 N/A.

Picking up on a couple of points previously made. The SRi is just a trim level with the same suspension/wheel sizes as other trim levels. Ride is good. SRi sits one down from Elite so trim level is quite good although air con rather than climate as standard.

Boot space isn't massive and when I was looking I specified no spare wheel as the boot would have been too small with one. Spare wheels have been discussed here before and it was no deal breaker for me not to have one.The upside of the small boot is plenty of legroom in the back which may or may not be of use for the OP.

Suggest you try a 1.0T before deciding, it may surprise you. The 1.4N/A is a bit gutless and whilst the 1.4T 150 is certainly quicker, I just didn't feel the need for that extra power seeing as my mileage is similar to the OP. There were some issues with early 1.4Ts, but this appears to have been solved with a re-specified oil. Was Dexos 2, now Dexos 1 Gen 2. No reported issues I've seen with the 1.0T although the new oil is now specified.

One of the changes PSA have made is to withdraw from the daily hire market, hence Motorpoint have far fewer for sale than they did a few months back. I didn't buy from them, but used their price to negotiate with a main dealer.