I have a Kia Venga 1.4 petrol..£10.000 will get you a nice one with a long warranty.

I get 35ish localy and 40 ish on a run.

What's the ride like in the Venga Oldroverboy?

The Kia Soul is a a great option if you want something which looks a little different, but you need to be aware of a couple of things which may put you off coming from a Golf Plus. Practicality OK, but it is a bit behind the space and versatality as the Golf Plus. The boot is smaller (quite shallow), the rear seats don't slide and they fold in the conventional 60/40 manner. Also, and this is going purely by what i have read, the ride is quite firm, especially so on the bigger alloy wheels you get on the jazzier special edition models. By all means, try one out first, you may not find it an issue, but i'd suggest avoiding examples with the bigger wheels. With regards to reliablity, absolutely nothing to worry about there, n/a 1.6 petrol mated to a manual gearbox, doesn't get much more straightforward.

Your £10k budget will get you into one as young as 2 years old with potentially 5 years remaining of its warranty.

We had a Nissan Note with the 1.2 DIG-S engine. Its way bigger than a Golf inside and in the boot plus it will do almost 50 mpg overall and 60 on a run, pretty good for a petrol. Decent performance with the supercharged engine as well. High seating position as well. Get the Permium Plus trim for all the goodies you need (inc decent Sat-Nav). The higher specs are pointless.

Your budget should get you into one of the last sold early in 2017.

Just out of interest, why do you want to change? If the Golf does what you need and there aren't many options open to you, then perhaps it's best to keep the Golf?

I've had it 3 years and it's at 40000 miles so it's a toss up to splash out on a new car or stick with the Golf. The timing chain should be done and the clutch slips every now and again. That's going to cost £750 or thereabouts so I felt the money might be better spent elsewhere whilst the car had some trade-in value. Slo will probably confirm that dealers won't offer huge money in part-ex.

It's a nice car (better than the standard Golf in my opinion). My mate offered me a straight swap for his Range Rover but even I'm not daft enough to fall for that!