Small enough to be economical with petrol and big enough to get a mountain bike into the back with the seat lowered. Plus the fact that I'd had a second hand Micra for years that was very reliable.
Heavy enough with enough torque to pull our caravan along briskly. Turbo diesel for economy. Sensible mileage at the right price. VW/Audi running gear.
Skoda Superb 1.9TDi. Bought with 50k on the clock. Now has 160k and still burns very little oil.
1.The right configuration for two people, two biggish dogs and all the stuff like wellies and so on that live in the car.
2. Small enough to manoeuvre easily when parking
3 4 x 4
4 Diesel engine
5 Affordable running and maintenance costs
6 decent accessory pack
I realise I haven't quite answered your exact Q TWR, so....
I was always a fan of the make and the model was the only 2 seater they do. That's not to say that the limited choice bothered me as I'd always thought they were a great looking car.
Prior to purchasing my current vehicle (and the previous one), I had driven the model as a hire car. In both cases, I reckon I had driven over 3,000 miles.
It looked like fun. It was a toss up between the Ford Puma and the Vauxhall Tigra and the Puma won as I'd read that there were reliability issues with (as Top Gear put it) "Vauxhall's hopeless Tigra". It had so much going for it and few issues, plenty of bang for buck and I couldn't give a rat's bottom that it's a "hairdresser's car"!
It *is* fun btw :-)