fair point on the diesel front, i have a bora on a remap circa 170bhp, that gets abused everywhere and a good car on a run, but the wife has been taking that as car seat is fitted to it.
no issue with the vw in two years though, short runs are only when i go to work and back, often that isn't the case though and i end up travelling a little further, come next year i have plans to be working a little further afield, so will be racking up more miles.

i had an alfa twinny, not that quick, but that drank fuel for fun!
petrol is not off the list at all, hence the monaro