I would second the commentary by A&C. For most of us, an aircraft is a pretty big investment in terms of cash, time and energy. Buying something you're going to be happy with for a few years has a lot going for it. Either that, or get something very simple and resolve to just enjoy it, regardless of limitations. My first aircraft was a C150 and, despite all the negatives one could write down, it took me all around eastern Australia, in reliable and cheap 'style'.
I'm not an expert on the Eu market but with a spend of euro40k, I'd be a bit concerned that you're under-estimating the maintenance costs of what would likely be old and/or relatively high-time Cessnas. SIDS is a really important thing to consider and, leaving aside the regulatory mandates, there are quite a few nasty surprises turning up in aircraft which look OK during regular inspections. Also on the maintenance issue, you need to check carefully the maintenance you can yourself actually perform, for a given class of operations. But perhaps you meant standard pilot maintenance items, which is fair enough.
You could certainly do a lot worse than consider a DR400. Although I'm pretty tall, these days my Sunday bug smasher is a P2002JF, which I bought second hand. With the seat correctly adjusted I'm just about OK, and am better off than in e.g. a Mooney. The only reason I mention it is that the economics of the higher capital investment, versus much lower operational and maintenance costs, swung the balance to the newer aircraft, at least in Australia and for the simple flying life.
You won't get anything for nothing in the aircraft ownership game: lower capital equals more operational and maintenance, and vice-versa. Providing you go in with your eyes open and without too much optimism bias, you can work with any scenario. For example, we did not grudge spending quite a bit of money on a lovely PA24-250 but you also need to be OK with the time and energy investment as well. Good luck with your selection.
Last edited by tecman; 21st Apr 2014 at 03:06.