Cessna 152, economy & SID's
The real truth of the matter is that for European flight training there is only one game in town and that is the Cessna 152 it is economically the best in terms of robustness and and day to day maintenance and is not too bad on fuel economy.
The 152 would of course be far better if the Rotax was fitted or even a FADEC controlled Lycoming.
The Idea that there is an alternative is almost laughable, all the VLA's that are robust enough for the job give much the same performance as the 152 and those that have very good performance are likely to fall apart very quickly, on one of these types we are seeing the same sort of airframe problems on 300 hour aircraft that we are seeing on 13,000 hour C152,s.
There is a reason that Cessna have come up with the SID's checks.......... It is because they know the aircraft will continue to be the market leader for some time as long as the airframe is properly maintained.
Oh ! I wish the guys restarting Mooney the very best..... A great aircraft.