Oddball choices as they would have suited my lifestyle.
As well as the civic was considering a nearly new Jaguar X type (too mondeo - a sheep in wolfs clothing) Nissan 350z (not enough luggage space but lovelly car) Honda CR-V (06 design model - hmmm nice but tooo expensive to run when 99% its just me driving) Nissan Quashqui (or however its spelt - not enough headroom as Im over 6' tall!) Alfa 159/GT (Reliability Issues and expensive) BMW 1 series (rear wheel drive
crap space and expensive) Mazda MX5 (lovely car - no space for taking stuff to work in france for 5 weeks on the trot).
Really then the only choice that fitted me was the Civic - and I love the looks
Alex