Andyboy

My Mum had a Mark 1 Golf GTi which was a very good car and built like a small tank. I had both a 1984 Escort XR3i and a 1982 RS1600i and both were very good cars also. The RS was quite twitchy and 'raw' like a 105 bhp Sud and the XR3i was rather more refined and really, a better package. Sad to say it but by 1982, the Sud was pretty much outdated - it was a ten year old car after all.
I had a Mark 2 Escort RS Mexico which was a vile thing, crude, noisy, oversteery and fun for about ten minutes after which it just became tedious.

I hate Vauxhalls with a passion so never even considered an Astra. Yuk.