Now appearing in its fifth incarnation, the Vauxhall Astra - which, if we're going to be personal about it, seemed to have let itself go a bit over the years and had turned into something of a lump - has been given a pricey makeover, involving cosmetic surgery, an extensive fitness regime and a dietary programme intended to promote physical and spiritual well-being. As a result, it enters middle age looking more svelte, lithe and ready for action than it ever has.

It certainly looks more svelte, lithe and ready for action than anything else in the Vauxhall catalogue, with the obvious exception of that speeding two-seater tea-tray, the VX220, a car one still can't quite believe Vauxhall had the nerve to make, given the company's more central and essential commitment to providing four-wheel coathangers for the nation's travelling rep population.

The Astra used to be a routine, hard-to-notice runabout - the kind of car you would be unlikely to point at on the road unless it happened to be on fire, upside down or heading directly towards you at 70mph. For the summer of 2004, though, it is wearing some eye-catching fashions, and has some edge - literally, in the form of the creases down the centre of its bonnet and along its sides, lending it a slightly tensed-up, ready-to-pounce look. It also has a sporty roof that falls away rapidly towards the back - to the point where, from the outside, you imagine that an adult passenger in the rear is going to have to sit with his chin on his stomach, though, by some Tardis-like miracle occurring within, this turns out not to be the case.

The grille has a showy chrome V set into it, the headlamps are bossy little clusters of plastic and silver and the rear of the car seems to follow new guidelines developed over at Renault, wherein a car cannot be regarded as contemporary unless its back looks like some kind of fusion between a microwave oven, a home cinema set-up and the head of one of the robots from the Cadbury's Smash adverts.

These changes position the Astra, looks-wise and even charisma-wise, somewhere between an Audi A3 and a Renault Mégane. Which is quite a transformation when you consider that the Astra used to sit, in this regard, somewhere between a tomato gro-bag and an out-of-town shopping centre. It's taut enough to compete from a driving point of view, too, being reassuringly firm to an almost German degree, but light and easy to pedal and steer. And it seems to have more of a spring in its step than, for instance, the new VW Golf does.

It could still stand to lose a few versions of itself, though. Which Astra are you going to buy? The 1.4 Expression? The 1.6 Life? Or maybe you would prefer the 1.6 Elite. No? Then how about the 2.0 Design? Then again, perhaps the 1.7 CDTi Club is more your kind of thing. Or the 1.8 SRi. Failing that, how about the 1.4 SXi? And would you like fries with that?

Altogether, the Astra is available in seven different models and with six different engines, presenting the consumer with a perhaps catastrophically unwieldy bundle of 28 choices of engine-and-trim combination. And that's before you start choosing the paintwork, deciding whether to go with the rubber floor mats or the velour ones, and making up your mind whether or not to opt for an MP3-compatible hi-fi.

By ticking the box to say yes to everything Vauxhall has to offer for your Astra, you can boost its price from the relatively modest entry point of £10,995 to a truly guilt- inducing £17,645 - although by then, presumably, the car will barely accelerate under the weight of its own supplementary spoilers and airbags.

Of course, choice is freedom, and is to be cherished as such. At the same time, choice is paralysis, if you get offered too much of it, and the Astra range looks dizzyingly like too much of it.

Generously sparing the Guardian a selection dilemma, Vauxhall sent along a 1.8 Design model. Design is the trim category between Club and Elite. It's two steps above Life, but two steps down from the range-topping SRi version. What with the extra skirts that drag the ground, and the Sport Switch system that enables you to punch up the performance of the throttle and the steering at the press of a button, the SRi version of the Astra seems to be altogether a teenage ramraider's idea of heaven.

The Design, by contrast, is clearly intended to be the Blackburn Rovers of the Astra range - dependably competitive without ever really setting the world on fire. Yet even this Astra is trim, feisty, and determinedly youthful despite everything. And it's a Vauxhall. There's hope for all of us.

The lowdown
Vauxhall Astra 1.8 Design

Price: £14,995

Top speed: 123mph

Acceleration: 0-60mph in 9.8secs

Consumption: 36.2mpg (combined)

At the wheel: Simon Mayo

On the stereo: The Streets

En route for: Chelmsford