[oldE]

My 2 cents worth:

I went through this just over two years ago.

Focus: The NA car is NOT what they have in Europe, so Top Gear's review was probably of the 2005 to present Euro version of the car, which I must say I liked a lot. Nothing in common with the NA version which is a re-skinned first gen Focus.

Honda Fit: I am 6'3" and the Honda seats were a PITA after about an hour. A friend has one and a trip to the city and back (4 hours) with him killed that option.

I also looked at the Civic, but found the styling (looks like someone dropped a wall on the hood) and the gearing/torque characteristics (row that gearbox or be slow) were not to my liking.

Versa: Loved the room and the 6 speed. Hated the seats.

Mazda 3s: A real contender. Both my wife and I liked the car. (previous model, they fuglied the current one). We almost bought one.

Ended up with another VW, a Jetta TDI. We have around 135,000 km on it now. Aside from oil and filter changes every 16k, the front discs and pads were done around 110,k and the rear discs and pads last month. The current Golf is the same platform although the current diesel has more power and torque than mine. The 2011 Jetta is slightly bigger but de-contented somewhat (ie: back to the twist-beam rear axle, 2 liter gas and harder plastics in the dash.)

Happy hunting
Les