Having sold my previous car, a 1998 Audi Cabriolet, I'm now looking for a replacement with an automatic gearbox and would be grateful if you could advise. I'd like something that looks good, is enjoyable to drive and has enough performance to cope with occasional long-distance motorway journeys, but that doesn't cost the earth to tax. Fuel costs are not important as I only drive 5,000 miles per year, most of which are short journeys of a few miles. For this reason, I'm unsure whether to go for a diesel or petrol engine. I'm keen on either an 05 Astra Sport Hatch 1.8i SRi, an 04 Audi A4 1.8T S-line (of which there are plenty of similar diesel models at the same price as the petrol version), or an 05 SAAB 9-3 2.0T Aero. I was also considering an Alfa GT but there are very few available with an automatic gearbox and the electronic Selespeed doesn't appear to be very reliable. My budget is no more than £7,000 and we intend to keep the car for a good few years to accommodate a growing family. Would you recommend any from our shortlist or have other suggestions that we should consider? Also, because we do mainly short journeys from cold starts, should we avoid diesels and turbo charged engines?