Thanks for the answers guys. The reason I am considering the 220d is because of the torque on tap but but there are more 250 sports around, good to hear the ratios are all 6 on the 220d though. The cooling seats were nice but i'm not too worried about once we're back in the UK to be honest!
I would disagree about alfas being unreliable though as I had a v6 156 a few years ago and it never put a foot wrong, same with other so called unreliable cars i've owned, it admittedly is luck of the draw but I think a lot of it is common sense when buying as well.
I know I'm not buying a performance car as such and the Lexus has other attributes which I like but I would like it to be a fun drive when the on my own.
I'll keep looking round and will look forward to a test drive of both.
Thanks again.