£2k for cheap economical car?

[stairlift]

We desperately need a 2nd car asap as I'm due to start a new job in next 2 weeks.
Is it totally unrealistic to get an economical runaround for approx £2k

Don't mind what it is as long as sound, cheap to I sure and decent on petrol. Have been looking at Fiestas/Focus but most of them in our budget are at least 12 years old.

U probably could find one, maybe owned by an old person who doesn't want to drive anymore.

I sold my 6 year old Corsa before COVID for exactly that.

Thank you, problem is we don't have much time to wait.
Have been looking on FB but wary of dodgy sellers

Looking at the second hand car market since covid, cars shot up in price and never went back down. Having said that, a 12 year old focus/ fiesta in good condition is going to be reliable and relatively cheap to repair if things do go wrong with it over time. Do your research though- Parkers website has all car makes and years and you can see their reviews of the cars for the trim style/ engine etc so you know what to look out for. Older skoda fabias may be good too? Or a VW Polo or similar.

I don't know about the current market, but it was definitely possible a couple of years ago.

Something like this doesn't look bad, although it's a bit over your budget. Japanese brands are reliable, it's a 10 plate, and the mileage is pretty decent.

www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202401065302300?advertising-location=at_cars&atmobcid=soc5&fromsra&make=Mitsubishi&model=&price-from=1500&price-to=2500&sort=relevance

Everything in the used market seems to have shot up since covid. It's crazy

Fiestas are relatively expensive for size/capacity. Look at other brands on auto trader, filter for minimum engine size, doors required and how far you can go to fetch, not brand

A 12 year old car would probably be perfectly ok. Especially if it's Japanese, they last forever.
My Micra will be 17 years old this year. I've had it for 14 years and never had a thing wrong with it.

Nothing wrong with a 10-15 year old car IF it's relatively low mileage, has a decent service history/MOT history to prove mileage, and it looks it decent enough condition. If there's no service history, then walk away as you'll never know what work has been done (i.e. timing belt and other "big price" things that could cost a fortune or do damage).

Don't assume local "used" car lots on an industrial estate are dodgy. Find some that are long established and go have a look at what they've got. Get them properly checked out by an RAC/AA inspection, get a warranty.

Look at the internal condition - a genuinely looked after relatively low mileage (for it's age) car will look OK inside. Excessive wear and tear of the seats, gear stick, controls, etc., could indicate it's been used more than it's recorded mileage!

For that kind of age, I'd be looking at a simple, basic model of car, without all the bells and whistles, as the more "gimmicks" you have, the more can go wrong and the more expensive to repair. So go bottom of the range model. Nothing with turbos, intercoolers, etc., and certainly don't go for any "prestige" makes like BMW which cost a fortune to maintain at that age!

Personally, I'd be looking at a 10-15 year old Citroen C3 which is a 4 door small family hatchback. You still see 04-09 plate ones in pretty big numbers out on the road. We've had 3 and still got an 08 plate one that's literally never been any trouble at all so we keep it as a "spare". It went into a private bodyshop to have a few scratches and dents repairs and the bodyshop guy offered to buy it from us for £2,500 as he was looking for a new courtesy car for customers and had had a few C3s in the past and said they were reliable and cheap/easy to maintain!

Auto trader has quite a few at the moment

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertising-location=at_cars&make=Citroen&maximum-mileage=50000&model=C3&moreOptions=visible&postcode=LA4+6SE&sort=relevance&transmission=Manual&year-to=2008&polaAffiliate=isis&utm_source=RoEye&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=HELP&utm_content=Skimbit%20Ltd.&utm_term=Performance

Thank you, will take a look. We had a C1 years ago and it was great!

I agree with others regarding older vehicles can still be good runners but make sure you take someone who knows cars. I've always bought from traders rather than private sellers as you do get a bit of protection.

I've only had 2nd hand fiestas and one focus and they've all reached old age with minimal care (20+ years) however they all had to be scrapped due to the flooring near anchorage points rotting away too much for spot repairs, so check carefully underneath. The engines would have carried on for another 20yrs

yes doable with a 2004-2008ish car.

look for under 100k miles and one that has passed its mot and full service history