Candy turbo did have a cayman before so I dont think kids are a hindrance?
Thats the thing, he had the cayman, but changed back to a hot hatch and loves it. Says alot IMO.
If i spend 30k+ on a car, it wont be a hot hatch or sports coupe, it would be a big luxurious saloon for everyday driving. I personally like hot hatches for hooning around on track, they work very well in all weathers, dont bite you in the ass when you lose it and are generally pretty cheap to run, buy and modify.
Its exactly why i bought this car. £14k brand new. Throw 3k of mods at it and it'll happily stay with 30k hot hatches all day long, whilst being much better on fuel, cheaper on tyres, brakes etc etc. That said i dont feel the need to go out street racing in the middle of the night, so this is ample for me.
The alternative is to buy a much more high performance focused car which hgas many many pitfalls.
Example, my mate has a WR1 Impreza with about 340hp. Yes, its awesome out of the box through the twisties, has bucket loads of grip but he manages 15mpg ish at best, very low single figures on track, its far to loud for normal use, costs a bomb to service, replace brakes and tyres etc.
He actually prefers my car and is now looking at changing it in for a smaller hot hatch