The Leon is worth having over the Golf if you can get the 150 bhp engine for the same money as the 122 bhp Golf, as you probably can. It's a great engine, and you're sensibly avoiding the iffy DSG transmission.

I haven't tried the Ford 1.5 petrol engine: hopefully someone else has experience of these. It would be interesting to know if it has had the same problems at higher mileages as the 1.0 Ecoboost.

The Kuga is a much bigger car than the others. If you want the extra space, add the Octavia (hatch or estate) 1.4 TSI to the shortlist.

Hi there. The focus st got blown out as the sports seats made it a tad cosy, the 1.5t titanium hence is a bit more roomy. The golf & leon have a bit more front space. The kuga's are nearly all diesel, but quite fancy the higher up seating with one. Ruled out the quasquai after reading the autotrader user review, so the kuga seemed the only smallish suv type with a turbo fitted. Will track down an octavIa for a sit in. Many thanks for the input.

'The Kuga is a comfy big wagon and well liked but as with all SUV's they're not so easy to sell on without diesel power.'

No longer true. Look at the Mazda CX5 petrol. Now a grand more than the equivalent age and spec last year. Dealers have latched on to the new desire for petrol (even in SUVs) and this is reflected in avialability and price.

Edited by Wayne Dibbley on 30/08/2017 at 13:47

Did initially have the crv & cx5 as top choices, being very comfy, but both petrol engines struggled on test drives once out of town. Probably fine in the civic or mazda 3. Hence went towards a kuga as more torque. Still a biggish lump for the engine to haul along, found the yeti a little on the unfortunate side as looks go.

Found that every salesman so far still pushes diesel with the give it a blast every month to clear the filter speech. Bless em.