What's new: On the Ceed platform, the £12,170 Proceed is longer, lower, lacking two doors and higher specced compared to its five-door sibling.

Excellent: A chunky rear end, exposed alloy pedals, a steeply slanting rear window and doors that are 276mm longer than the Ceed's make this a very good-looking car - several colleagues forgot their badge snobbery.

Good: Low range torque meant throttle response was great in town. Rear accomodation  was also declared to be "spacious" by a six-feet tall back-seat passenger.

Average: Cheap plastics below the window line led to an annoying rattle developing in our car, which had done under 2000 miles. This wasn't helped by the Proceed's firm ride.

Poor: Discovering a lack of anti-skid technology was a concerning moment - it is offered in the range but not as standard across all models.

Verdict: Running costs of 34.6ppm make the Proceed a very worthy competitor to big-name rivals.