1. 1989 Nissan Bluebird LX 1.6. Too much car, too little engine.
2. 1995 Renault Laguna RT 1.8. Comfy, slow, rusty, timing belt went and cost me £480.
3. 1998 BMW 318ti M Sport. Fun, thirsty, costly to run for what it was.
4. 1999 BMW 528i SE. Best car so far. More-or-less the same running costs as the 3er, but with the refinement and power to justify it. The I6 is smooth, the ride excellent, and it's no thirstier (35+ MPG on the motorway, 25ish around town) than a 2L 4-pot driven enthusiastically enough to get the same kind of performance. On the motorway, I reckon it's just about perfect.

ETA: All of these are manual transmission; auto is something that's unusual in the UK. Almost everyone passes their driving test in a manual because if you pass in an automatic, you cannot legally drive an automatic. The only auto cars I've driven and not been given Teh Rage by are big diesels (BMW 530d wasn't bad, frexample - the box could change gear without you noticing).

My mother's Ford Fusion (1.6L petrol, she's got a dicky left hip and using the clutch aggravates it) is simply not suited to the automatic gearbox. Buzzy and while not exactly jerky, I can change gear better than that autobox does. She'd have been better off with a nice big diesel automatic, but her comment was "I can't park a large car". My comment was "you can't park a small one, so why not have something quiet and comfortable, with a big boot?". But then she never listens to me. Keeps buying Windows laptops, for a start...