After moving closer to the city centre we've been a single car house (e90 msport 320d) for a couple of years but now our eldest will be starting school next Sept I'm looking to get a second car to allow some flexibility around drop off & pick ups. I was initially looking at a mk5 golf gti as a great allrounder but lately I've been thinking of taking the opportunity to get something a bit less practical -

Max budget is 12k and as it's a second car which I'll likely drive 99% of the time 4/5 seats are not essential (I could live with a 2 seater) and I'm open to considering larger engines (3.0+ & must be petrol) but would prefer to avoid highly specialized cars which require $$$ for maintenance (so currently M3, M5, S4 etc are out of scope).

So far, along with the GTI I've also looked at Z4 coupe, mk5 golf R32 but then my mind goes blank so I'm hoping for some divine inspiration here