First thing fella,put all thoughts of Alfa Romeos out of your mind,their still unreliable badly built pieces of shit and are only marginally better than they were in the 90's.

320d is a cracker,albeit a touch pricey but well within your range.merc the same but beware of rust on mercs,surprisingly bad for such lovely cars.

Passat/a4 avant are great motors and Volvo v70 range also superb.

Avoid 4x4 if economies an issue.I've got an ml 270cdi and it's a great bit of kit but right now 30mpg,at best round town is really hurting the wallet,tyres etc seem fine on it but fuel is a killer.

As for a reliable toy,get something turbo so there's scope to tune it a bit in the future,again I'd be looking more from the German stable but those seat Leon cupra things seem a lot of car for the money,nice 200bhp motor with respectable mileage.

Avoid French unless you want it more track than road,100 miles a day will soon see a shitty Renault fall to pieces.

Anything jap is good bar the Celica vvt thing,my mate worked in a scrappy and everyone one in there had a blown lump,at some low mileages as well,don't know why.

Civic type r look good or the less fashionable accord,still a quick q car and their out there for £3k,2 would be pushing it IMO.

From the ford range your in focus St 170 territory which are robust enough,but pretty thirsty and a tad slow.surprisingly the economy never really improves if you dawdle either,their just thirsty!!!

You could possibly get an astra coupe turbo for £3k but it's torque steer heaven/hell and perhaps not economy friendly!!!

I take it good news insurance wise then?