Seeing as this is the second most popular thread topic (I'll let you determine the pole sitter), I'll try to be brief ans systematic as possible. I might even have half answered my own questions but I'm bored so I'll consult the interweb as well:

Required	Important	Useful
Within budget (<£3000)	Reasonable motorway manners	Decent Radio / CD
Seats 4 plus luggage	Reasonable performance	Airconditioning
Reliable	Good handling / ride	Heated front W/S
Reasonable running costs	<10 years old
Reasonable economy (>30mpg average)

Now the obvious candidate for such a "daily driver", mainly used by the missus on the daily commute (~30miles) and some domestic trips of varying length (20-400miles, all types of roads) and which wouldn't make a keen driver unconcerned with "prestige" want to self-harm on a nice b-road... is clearly a Fraud (Freud?) Focus, of 1.6-1.8 litres in size. Or something.

I like torque but slightly prefer sharp throttle (all the better to aid ham-fisted rev-matching on frequent downshifts required when out-braking oneself on entry to roundabouts). The missus learned to drive in a diesel and so likes those. I'm pretty agnostic at this point as I plan to keep something for the weekend (eventually).

So petrol or diesel flavoured henry? Or something else?

(I'll be after something more quirky one day, I promise).