Golf 5

If you get an unabused, regularly maintained 1.6 FSI, it's a car I can recommend. My uncle bought a 2006 model in 2012, sold it a year ago, and still talks about how it never once left him stranded - he drove it happily for many years. The only thing it might let you down on is fuel - it's not an economical engine and it doesn't take well to LPG. My uncle installed an LPG kit once, but when the engine started running erratically he had it removed and went back to running it on petrol.

Boss, we drove it for 5 years, it's satisfying in comfort and handling, it never made us go to the garage outside of regular maintenance, never left us stranded. Ours was the 1.6 naturally aspirated, 102 hp, and yeah the fuel consumption was really high - it had LPG too and we never had any problems. If you want it well-equipped, go for 2007 and up, it's a legendary car for its segment