What shall I get, my pretties?

[yapman]

Ok, so, having decided not to go with the flash, expensive car this year, I need to choose something to tide me over from giving back the company car to buying something nice in a year or two.

There's not a lot of criteria, but I'm looking for inspiration/stupid suggestions.

So, the criteria:

• should cost a couple of grand
• 4 (or 5) seats. Real seats only - I put the kids in the back as often as not.
• fun to drive
• not stupidly expensive to insure
• er, that's it

It's barely ever going to be used (I shall be cycling to the station when I switch jobs), so it doesn't have to be terribly fuel efficient. I'd rather not need a second mortgage to drive more than a hundred miles or so, though, so not too thirsty. I have a contact in the trade who's at auctions once or twice a week, so I'll be choosing a model, price and feature set, then waiting for the call to come and pay for it.

So, what should I be looking for?