Car advice - best reliable small used car around £5/6K?

[Fedupwitheveryone]

Please advice on next shitty car purchase. My old car has finally died and i'm stuck as to what to replace it with - I know nothing about cars and can't afford to get it wrong.

Need something small - medium for short distance London school run driving a few times/week. Only needs to fit one adult, one child, but ideally four doors as I child will need to be in back seat for a few years yet. Automatic only. Needs to feel safe enough for occasional motorway driving.

Any suggestions as to reliable cars that are good value in that price range - I don't want to buy something cheap that's going to cost more in repairs.

2007 + Golf? Renault Clio? Ford Focus? Any advice welcome.

I drove my grans automatic picanto last week and was really impressed.

I bought a 2016 smart forfour prime premium this year to replace my beloved 2009 smart fortwo. Mine is manual but theyre easier to find in auto!
I absolutely love it & get really decent mpg

So happy with my Renault Clio. Have had 2 now. Fabulous xx

We had no problems with our very old Nissan, just normal wear and tear bills, and it was always 100% reliable. I'd definitely get another one - Note or Micra are both small, come in automatic, plus your budget should get a reasonable one. Our last one cost £700 at 10 years old and lasted 4 more years of high mileage including motorway driving every day.

I love my auto Skoda Fabia. I agree with others the automatic transmission type is important especially in a small car. The Fabia is DSG and I find it great to drive. Some of the semi automatic/automated manual types you more often find in smaller cars are bloody awful to drive.

Honda jazz. Good reliability, the Honda automatic gearbox is considered good. Although you don’t say you need it, lots of luggage space, and good space for rear seat passengers. Curious as to why you seem to have rejected it.

This. They run forever and are very low maintenance. Speaking from personal experience

We have a Honda Jazz and a Hyundai, albeit i30. I would rate the Honda over the Hyundai, just feels better built. We also had a 2nd hand Toyota Yaris before and it lasted 14 years.
However we paid 10K for our 2nd hand jazz so not sure how old you would need to go.

I know nothing about cars tbh, but I do know that it's been taken into the garage for service/MOT multiple times and the air conditioning has definitely been mentioned to the guys there, more than once. Maybe I need to find another garage....

Yes my gran has an automatic Skoda fabia and when I drove it recently I was amazed at how smooth it was. If deffo buy one

I've only ever had 2 automatic cars and one was shocking whilst the other one is a dream. The bad one was a Ford eco sport - I hated the car and it would fail to start more times than it started. The second automatic is the one I have now and I love it - it is a Honda CR-V. According to some car enthusiast the Mark 2 Honda Cr-v is within your price range and is as reliable as a car can be.

@Mangolist if you haven't bought a car in a while I think you'll be pretty shocked at how little £3k will buy you now.

Vauxhall Corsas are cheap and reliable.

Don't touch anything French with a bargepole. Get a cheap Toyota Yaris, ideally one of the really old ones. Don't need to spend anywhere near 5k on it. A Honda Jazz is also a good bet & has brilliant boot space.

I think it's more about the dealer than the car itself. I had 3 Peugeots and loved them all but I bought each from a trusted car dealership which prided itself on good quality second hand cars. Find a good, honest dealer and you'll be fine!

Citroen C3 are a good small car. We've got two, one is 8 years old, the other is 15 years old. Neither has caused us any problems at all, no breakdowns and neither has needed anything more than usual service/parts replacements such as tyres, brakes, spark plugs, battery, and timing belt per schedule. They're good solid little cars. The 15 year old one has just passed it's MOT with no issues at all (again).

I haven't found french cars unreliable,but they are not the best for electrics.
Italian cars are said to be unreliable.
Avoid the Polo - it will be expensive if anything goes wrong.
Avoid an Audi A3 - I don't know anyone who hasn't had problems.

Avoid the sort of car that's been bought 'because of how it looks'.
Get a full service history. You want a car that's been driven carefully and serviced regularly.

Hiyundai cars have a good reputation and when you buy a new one the warranty is a long one

Have you actually booked it in to get the air on fixed? It’s not something they would do as part of an ordinary service.

OP, I love my Polo.

@MereDintofPandiculation I haven't really rejected it. Just biased because I remember not loving driving one for a week once that belonged to my brother. But I'm sure I wasn't comparing like for like. It's still on the list ;-)

Nissan Micra and Suziki Swift have both been really reliable for me.

If you buy any Toyota with less than 100k miles and less than ten years old. Toyota now give Toyota relax warranty to every one of there cars. All you need to to is get it serviced at any Toyota garage and they give you an extra 12 months warranty Upton 10 years old.

They are also very very reliable. 🙂

Skoda Citigo. We've got a 4 door one and it's great.

@rumship they must be popular as there aren't many in my price range (at least not Cat s or Cat N - ie written off then repaired) and def none under 10 years old.

Same goes for Honda Jazz (within 50 miles anyway)

Skoda Citigroup or Skoda Fabia. Both ultra reliable and solid cars. Same as the Honda but without the price . I am on my 3rd Skoda and love ❤️ them. I have driven may different cars, BMW, Mercedes, LandRover, Ford, Alfa and apart from Alfa the Skoda is the only other repeat purchase

Honda Jazz. An AA bloke once told me that the only time they ever get called out to a jazz is when the battery is run down from the lights being left on.