Citroen DS3?
It's a great driving little car - I remember 'trading up' to the 135i after the DS3 and feeling extremely disappointed in the BMW's lack of body control in comparison.
You have to live with it being 'a Citroen' though.....but is that really any worse than having a Ford or Peugeot? Not in my eyes it isn't (although when talking about 'real' Citroens...i.e. the up and down ones....I admit I'm a bit of a fanboy).
As a relevant comparison, we test drove a Polo GTi a few months ago as a potential replacement for our Mini (and then proceeded to buy a Range Rover doh!). Not only was the Polo a big disappointment in direct comparison to the Mini (I'd never have changed out of the Mini for that thing!), memory tells me that the DS3 was much better to drive too. If the promise of superior quality was to sway in the Polo's favour, this was quickly dismissed with the amount of buzzing coming from the rear of the (brand new) car we test drove...funny, because these trim noises seems typical of a lot of premium cars yet the lowly Citroen was relatively tightly made.
Anyway, there's my 2p's worth.....now ignore that and go buy a German car
