I have a Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec (sig pic). Its my second car but thsi is the first car that's properly mine (my first was a shed and is my dad's daily hack). I'm only 18 so I'm pretty please with it right now but honestly, its not really worth trying to get a lot of power out of it.

To be honest with you, for the money you've got to spend, getting high power jap is going to be a bit hit and miss and you could end up with a right old dog and as a daily hack it wouldnt be ideal. You could probably get a nice BMW E36/E46 325i or 328i which would be real smooth and poky as well.