I spent about 4 months trying to find what car I wanted to get that was practical, reliable, comfortable, looks good and was good value for money. I ended up with a nice '03 V40 1.9D sport, its currently on 117k and it still feels fresh, no issues I can really find, just a few bulbs that need replacing here and there and the intake needed a clean out due to the EGR valve but other than that I can't fault it.
I specifically got a V40 rather than a newer S40 2.0D due to the fact that its a Ford 2 litre diesel in the newer cars and its a shockingly bad engine and the DPF fails causing very expensive issues.
They don't make them like they used to
also its based on the Mitsubishi Charisma chassis, so its the same as the Evo 1-3 so parts such as brakes bolt right on and a few S40s have been converted to full 4WD lol