Most reliable used cars for £5-7000

ZOZO93

My trusty first car or a Citroen C1 is on its way out at 12 years old so I am looking at upgrading to a slightly larger car.

My main priority is reliability so currently I am looking at a Yaris or jazz. The wonderful thing about the Citroen C1 was it was a Toyota in disguise so was quite a bit cheaper. Does anybody know of other solid reliable cars to get for £5-7k?

venomx

Ford Fiesta are supposed to be very good

tommyedinburgh

Toyota will be near the top of the list. 

FindAndFinance

Norman_Castle said:

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Are you the spam police

marlot

We've owned both a Yaris and  Jazz.

Jazz - much more space inside (the 'magic seats' are amazing).  We sold ours when the gearbox bearings went.  No other faults in eight years (from new).
Yaris - handles better.  Had no faults in six years of ownership (from new).

We now have a civic estate (also has the 'magic seats').

Ebe_Scrooge

Yep, Japanese cars in general tend to have a good reputation for reliability.  Obviously you can get unlucky and pick a lemon from even the best marque, but it's all about taking your time to check the car thoroughly for condition and history.

For what it's worth, I've got a Honda Civic (hatchback).  7 years old when I bought it, and (touch wood!) I've not had a single problem in 5 years of ownership.  All I've done is serviced it (myself) as required, and generally looked after it.

If you take your time and make sure you check any potential car over thoroughly, there are plenty of good cars available in that price range.

tacpot12

It is worth checking that any Japanese car you are thinking of buying will handle the new E10 fuel, as apparently Japan puts very little ethanol into its petrol so their cars are not necessarily as good as coping with it as European cars. 

I'm a fan of Japanese cars generally. A friend has a Yaris that she is very pleased with after a number of problems with her previous car. 

BOWFER

tacpot12 said:

It is worth checking that any Japanese car you are thinking of buying will handle the new E10 fuel, 

Any Jap car built after 2004 can take E10
Given the OP's budget, he won't be looking at cars anywhere near that age.

livetoclimb

BOWFER said:

tacpot12 said:

It is worth checking that any Japanese car you are thinking of buying will handle the new E10 fuel, 

Any Jap car built after 2004 can take E10
Given the OP's budget, he won't be looking at cars anywhere near that age.

Nope. A number of Toyotas including the Avensis aren’t E10 compatible. 

peter3hg

livetoclimb said:

BOWFER said:

tacpot12 said:

It is worth checking that any Japanese car you are thinking of buying will handle the new E10 fuel, 

Any Jap car built after 2004 can take E10
Given the OP's budget, he won't be looking at cars anywhere near that age.

Nope. A number of Toyotas including the Avensis aren’t E10 compatible. 

The only post 2004 Toyota that isn't compatible is the 2.0l & 2.4l Avensis up to 2008.

Goudy

Even cars with good reputations for reliablity can end up with some costly bills on the horizon.
So I wouldn't place total faith on one model on reputation alone, there's a bit more to buying a used car.

"Bombproof" cars still need things like clutches, timing belts along with other serviceable parts like brakes and tyres.
Just a combination of a couple of the above could add another £1000+ to the purchase price if you don't do some homework on the actual car you want to buy.

Your budget is likely to lead you to cars around the age where some of these things are probably going to need attention or better for you, had it already.

As mentioned, Yaris and Jazz tend to be associated with reliablity and because of this tend to sell for more.
This means your budget will push you towards and older/more mileage car that might be near or even past the time they want a few expensive jobs doing.
You can probably say the same for some VW cars like the Polo as well, though the sister cars like the Ibiza and Fabia are more reasonabily priced, yet use identical mechanics.

The Fiesta has had some slating in the past, some of it a bit unfair but they sell so many you should have your pick of cars and if one seems a bit leggy, scruffy or missing some service history, the next one is only around the corner.

For just a little more the top end of your budget, my lad just bought a mint 3 year old Fiesta Zetec with 27,000 miles and full service history.
We hardly had to look and found plenty locally and though I'm not a Ford fan, I can see the advantages, parts are plentyful and cheap, there's nothing really special under the bonnet but it drives fantastic.

Oh and it's dirt cheap to insure.