What cheap second car?

swedespeed

It is looking like from January I will be based at a new office. Unlike my current somewhat urban office, this new office is in a very rural location, about 10 miles each way from my home, mostly all mud-covered single track roads (the type with passing places every 100 metres or so). A few runs to this office in the last couple of weeks saw me diving into the hedge from time to time to allow cars to pass.

My current car is a brand new lease, so I'm not keen to subject its paintwork and mirrors to the hedgerows or an oncoming farmer's 4x4!

I'm looking to buy a cheap second car to use to do all of these miles and to use if the weather gets bad - i'll stick a set of winter tyres on it. It'll also double up as a handy storage place for things I don't want to keep in the house and provide me with a form of transport I don't really care about so I can use it when I go trail running or mountain biking (park it anywhere, get in it when muddy, etc.).

It'll probably do about 5-6k miles a year. I don't really want to spend over £2k to buy it, and ideally something closer to £1k would be ideal. Insurance isn't a major problem as I have max NCD on my other car which the insurance company have offered to mirror. Would like to keep running costs sensible, so the more fuel-efficient - to a point - and reliable it is the better.

Any suggestions of particular models I should consider?

wgl2014

I would consider an older Saab 9-3 or 9-5.
Very cheap and easy to maintain. £800 buys a decent one.

There are of course lots of other options.

Gloomendoom

Suzuki Jimmy. They are really narrow.

worried_jim

wgl2014 wrote: »

I would consider an older Saab 9-3 or 9-5.
Very cheap and easy to maintain. £800 buys a decent one.

There are of course lots of other options.

Best car I ever had. Beyond superb.

MX5huggy

Your either looking at a road bike with mudguards or a cyclocross bike, mountain bike is a bit OTT for tramaced roads. Between £1 and £2 k will get you a nice machine.

tonyh66

suzuki grand vitara, subaru forester

System

Ford Focus or pretty much any small hatchback. You don't need a 4x4 for these kinds of roads. We have lots of them around here, the only people who have 4x4s are farmers and posers.

GunJack

for that little useage, top budget of £400...probably less

mgfvvc

I would have thought a cheap Fiesta would be easy to find and cheap to run.