In our house, historically I've always had the bigger, better equipped car and my wife has had the smaller runaround. She doesn't really enjoy driving and only uses hers when I'm not around.
I've got a 2.0 TDCi Focus Ghia which has given me good service over the past 6 years. I use it for commuting and we tend to use it for longer social trips, holidays etc. My daily commute is about 70 miles there and back and I'm doing about 20k a year. I've decided to keep the Focus until it drops. I've just had the cambelt and waterpump replaced and I'm hoping to get another 5 years reliable use out of it. Some of my commute is along dirty shitty country lanes and I don't fancy doing that with a nice new(ish) car. The Focus is looking a bit tatty now with stone chips, scratches and general wear and tear.
So my wife has a 2006 Yaris 1.3 which she likes and only does about 3k a year. I'd like to replace it with something that she could drive day to day but that we could both use socially leaving the Focus purely for my work commute.
The problem is that I would want decent performance and some luxury. She thinks the Yaris is big enough for her (hates driving my Focus) and doesn't want anything much bigger.
So what can we get that meets the brief? I'll compromise a bit on performance and although I like my TD's I accept that petrol would be the best bet considering the low mileage it would be doing. She says she will consider something slightly bigger than her Yaris but not much.
I'm a bit out of touch with what's out there at the moment. Although I've driven Ford's for the past 15 years, I hate the interior styling of the Fiesta so that's out. I looked at the Mini which seems to be same length as the Yaris but a bit wider. The other car that caught my eye was the Citroen DS3 which looks to be fairly well regarded and is possibly small enough for her indoors but its French innit and I'm a bit wary of that. If it were a 1968 Citroen DS I'd buy it in a flash but I'm not so sure about modern ones. Any thoughts on the DS3 or alternatives that fit the brief?