Puma 1.7. Girlfriend's (now fiance's) car. Suffered untimely demise with me at the wheel, in collision with tea-leaf scum. Never a Ford fan, this car really won me over, for it's wonderful responses, handling, and accessible fun. Smooth yet vocal engine, close ratio box, pedals allow heel/toe, handling still great on bumpy roads (this a must for UK real-world use). Always felt light and chuckable on the road, low running costs - I'd strongly recommend it! In fact I often took this for a blat when Rosie had it, and rarely if ever bothered to drive the Civic type R, the Puma was far more satisying.

One of the best balanced chassis you can buy for less than £20k. Great fun on the road and with the 1.7 engine is a genuinely quick machine. Front wheel drive, unfortunatly, but still surprisingly good on track. Fantastic gear box and looks, only concern are brakes which can overheat and an excitable ABS. Cheap to run and insure and for £13k, its almost impossible to fault. Shame Ford have just killed it -another own-goal from them. Racing version is in a FWD drive class of its own, but way too expensive.