I would have to say the Stagea is one of the best Nissans made and although
compact not really a small car as you started off with your thread.
Hands down the Stagea is an awesome beast with luxuries you are still
discovering late in your ownership.

BMW X series are perhaps the biggest wank factor pieces of tripe around.
Just the SUV mentality of big black wank cars is primitive and commonplace.
Early M3 and 635i are a different story pure class.

If you want to go to the dark side with a budget the Colt RalliArt is hard
to avoid, apart from FWD it has a very economical 113kw engine, great
handling, good wasabi muscle Jap styling and one of my neighbours has had it
tweaked for 160kw and its still super economical.
http://www.ralliart.com.au/RalliartVehicles/ColtTurbo.aspx