£5000 to spend on a second-hand family car

Baxter100

Any recommendations? Got a maximum £5,000 to spend on a small family sized car (E.g. a Golf, Focus type thing). Would ideally be petrol, 1.4l+, 5 doors.

Has anyone bought recently with a similar budget?

LandyAndy

Give us a clue about the type of driving you will be doing.

Baxter100

Mixture of personal and work driving. I probably average around 6-8000 miles a year which is a mixture of motorway driving, regular 30 minute drives locally and the occasional cross-country drive.

Aylesbury_Duck

Definitely petrol with that pattern of driving.

I've had four approved used Toyotas over the years (one Carina, two Avensises and a Yaris) at or around that price and all three have been excellent, economical, cheap to insure and the service from my local dealership has been good. I've driven an Auris hire car and it's a good solid car, so perhaps look at one of them.

parking_question_chap

I would say a 1.6 Focus.

Driving style will have more of an impact on economy rather than a few hundred cc difference. Dont think they do a 1.4 anyway.

I would be inclined to try and get one with as few previous owners as possibly. Generally when people keep cars for long periods of time they willl make sure any work required gets done.

lewishardwick

I'd also say focus.

Probably not the most exciting, but there's so many about parts are cheap and plentiful. For £5k you could get a top spec pre-2010 model with reasonable miles. Or a lower spec face-lift model with higher mileage...

System

+3. Focus was the first thing that came to my mind. Those and Mondeos are bargains of the century because the market is flooded with them, they're a great driving experience and they're cheap as chips to service and repair. You should have no problem finding a reasonable mileage example with full Ford service history.

The definition of reasonable mileage is around 8000-12000 a year. Low mileage from either short journey town driving or spending long periods unused wears the hell out of cars to the point every manufacturer places low milers on abnormal service schedules and whilst high mileage isn't an issue, be wary around 70-80,000 miles where suspension bushes, brake discs and clutches are likely to show signs of needing doing.