I wanted a hot hatch that was frugal, decent handling, good on motorways, had comfy seats, easy to tune power wise, and was relatively rare.
I was looking at the ep3 Civic Type R, Astra VXR, Mazda 3MPS
, and Focus ST. Saw a black LCR in the flesh and I was sold! Very understated yet aggressive, with old school turbo power delivery.