A Good Barge / B Road Blaster Balance?

[WaldoMcBaldo]

So to cut a boring story short, the Mrs is looking to change her job. Her current job comes with a company car, the new one may not, so we need another car. I plan to take the Volvo (2002 S40 1.9d) off the road for a while until she needs it and use this as an excuse to treat myself to something nice. I'll probably sell my Honda Hornet to fund it so I should have about £1500 to play with.

Problem is I like a bit of space and comfort, I regularly carry passengers and like them to be comfy, I work somewhere that's nearly 1000ft above sea level and in the countryside so I need to be able to cope with a decent amount of snow and farm tracks (Winter tyres work wonders), and as I'm selling my Hornet I'd like it to be reasonably pleasurable to drive at least so I can B road blast when I feel like it.

I seem to keep arriving at Lexus IS200s as I really want a petrol 6 (never had a car with more than a 4 pot) but the fuel economy seems absymal really. I'd like at least 30mpg from gentle driving.

Am I asking too much for my budget?