Covering decent miles on a regular basis necessitates certain things for me. Comfort, reliability, safety and driver aids, space and auto box. Manual and traffic becomes tiresome very quickly especially at the end of a tiring day or week. The same would apply to something highly strung that involves effort to drive. On any given day you could be fatigued from a bad nights sleep, winter v summer driving etc etc. Performance really isn’t a huge concern as the speed traps will take the shine off that quick enough. Most 2 litre diesels will huddle along quite well. Driving. Position plays a part too. Cruiser boy v recommended advanced driving position. This is what a use currently. I was behind the wheel for over 7 hrs and 650km one day last week. No aches or pains.