yeah, the rear seats go down no worries, but you're still stuck with the fact it's a sedan and thus can't fit the same stuff that you can in the hatch (i once put a 7ft bookcase in the old golf and drove it to canberra.....just amazing space)

but djork's got a point-- if you find a well-looked after bora with decent k's, you'll be pretty happy. And 12k could fetch a decent 4 motion with 90,xxx ~ 150,xxx on the clock

re. the weight, i think the engine makes up for it. I haven't clocked mine, but owners say it's close to a 7 second car, and the purr it makes when idle is just art (stock too)