Sorry to see it's up for sale, I've gone through your examples of possible next cars and have added an opinion - mk4 Golf GTI turbo or V6 4motion (Look at a Leon Cupra as they're faster (180bhp compared to Golf's 150) , Completely boring to drive though and about 33mpg average from my old one, Engine is stupidly designed so makes working on it a nightmare - Lupo GTI (Not had one but more girly than the Yaris IMO) - Clio 182 or 197 (Had a Non Sport Clio and loved it, It wouldn't break at all, Sport is meant to be the best hot hatch for fun of it's generation) - Corolla T Sport (Avoid as mentioned unless it's a Facelift (04 onwards) plenty of grunt as with the EP3 but nowhere near as much fun, Basically a normal boring Corolla with a mad engine but not suspension to match it with - Yaris T Sport (I've been looking at one for myself after my MB3 but going 172 instead) Toyota reliabilility as standard, they don't seem to run, chain driven so no need to worry about cambelt although get it checked at 100k) I'd look into an Suzuki Ignis Sport personally as well, Great fun, Quirky styling and Recaro's as standard as well as being newer than Yaris's and still reliable Personally I'd say avoid VAG or German cars, maybe quick but designed to be typically German, reliable and built to do a job, No fun involved though