Obviously it depends what you really want from the car, an R32 would be good, but I certainly wouldn't call a mk5 golf gti fast, but I appreciate we all have different standards and opinions.

If it's going to be your main car and you'll be keeping it for a while, the sensible compromise is the newest one you can have for your budget.

Have you considered a chipped diesel for instance, or is that out of the question? Also do you have any preferences of manual, fwd, rwd, awd, etc....