I'm after some help in choosing a small, petrol, automatic car to replace my ageing 2005 Vectra SRI CDTi 150 (98,500 miles).

My daily commute is a 60 mile round trip on A roads / motorways and I do short runs at weekends and the occasional long journey. I would prefer a car that is enjoyable to drive - either as a result of its performance or its character - and I'd like to move away from diesel as I don't like the increasing complexity of the engines. It has to be automatic or DSG as I only have one arm.

So far I've narrowed it down to two Skoda Fabia Hatchbacks - either the vRS (performance) or the 1.2 TSI Elegance (cheaper costs) - as they seems to meet my criteria, particularly with the current 20% deal Skoda are doing that mean I could buy new. An outsider is the Volkswagen High Up, but I'm not sure how this copes on motorways?

I've discounted other cars as too expensive (e.g. Fiesta/Clio), or only having 4 speed gearboxes (e.g Kia Rio/Suzuki Swift), but is there anything else I should be considering?

My budget (including trade in) is around £15,000 I'd prefer to buy new but would consider nearly new for the right car. I'd be looking to keep it for at least 5 years.