No idea what car to get - max £10K to spend - help!

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Ancient Seat Ibiza coming to the end of it's life, so we're looking for a new car. Don't need anything massively bigger, but a wee bit bigger would be nice. New or used, 3 or 5 door, manual or auto, don't mind. Just something sensible and reliable, which will last us 10 years or more...

I don't even know where or how to start looking

I've just done the same exercise - change car for under £10k. I only needed a small car and ended up with a new Panda and some change to get my teeth sorted out. But the point of this post is to say that almost everyone I sought advice from suggested a used Focus as being a good buy, nice car, cheap to repair and very reliable. I didn't need anything that big, but it might be ideal for you.

Go and have a look at cars as soon as you can, I found that some of the cars on my list were not as nice as I'd hoped in the flesh.

Blimey!

Ten grand is a lot of money...

I always use UsedCarExpert for things like this - gives you a proper idea of what you can get - rather than trying to remember all the different options which I can never do.

www.usedcarexpert.co.uk/buy/-/price/from-9000/to-10000/fuel-petrol/doors-5/maxcc-1800/minage-0/maxage-2/minmileage-0/order-price+low+to+high/

There's some great cars there - a lovely little Honda Jazz leaps out - but it will be dear to maintain compared to the mass-market European cars.

Oddly, it transpires you best bet might be to replace the Ibiza with... another Ibiza! The Polo is the same underneath, as are the Skoda Fabia and Audi A1.

New shape Focus' (foci?) are on offer at that money...

www.usedcarexpert.co.uk/buy/ford/focus/d-100021/id-6255399/

Be aware that you don't need to spend that much money to get a reliable, useful car. You could get this...

www.usedcarexpert.co.uk/buy/ford/c-max/d-27028/id-7234569/

Not the coolest car in the world but hugely useful all the same - and likely to be very cheap to insure and service.

If you are willing to go a little older, say three years, all sorts of options appear.

www.usedcarexpert.co.uk/buy/-/price/to-10000/type-small+family+cars/maxage-3/maxmileage-20000/order-price+high+to+low/

Good luck with it!

Best

Dave

vw passat thats a few years old.
Ford Mondeo that would be slightly newer/lower mileage for the same price.

Or a Focus if you don't want to go that big.

Or a Skoda Yeti.

Toyota Yaris. Mine is 9and I've only replaced tyres once and light bulbs/wipers etc. v reliable versatile and low mpg.

I have a ford cmax. Bought it when it was 3 mths old from a car supermarket. It is now 7 years old, never let me down (27k miles). Only had to buy new tyres and servicing.

Prior to this car I had a focus. Bought it new and kept it for 7 years. Again, it never let me down.

Dacia Duster

"There's some great cars there - a lovely little Honda Jazz leaps out - but it will be dear to maintain compared to the mass-market European cars."

Where the hell has this idea that Hondas are expensive to run come from?! They're high performing in reliability stakes (Honda are obsessive about their engineering) and parts prices more than reasonable.

And you're talking about a Jazz, not an NSX Type-R.

French cars are more expensive parts wise, thought Honda were ok too.

Interesting reading through this thread.I am looking at a new car as well. The article on the most reliable showed up some makes higher than I thought they would be.

What did you get in the end OP?

I am doing the same search one. Want o get I'd of my ageing Ford C Max and looking at Qashqai, Juke, Citreon C3Picasso and newer C max. Inclined to go for Qashqai but not sure.

Thanks to everyone who has replied, this has been very educational.

Have now decided to get car early next year, and I think we've narrowed it down to a Ford (Focus or Fiesta) or a Skodia Fabia (which is my fave, I love the shape of it). Although I am also keen to test drive some Nissans as I have noticed that just about every really old car I see still running is a Nissan!

Have decided on a used car, a few years old, and with a lower budget so we can save a bit. So am now thinking around £6-£7K.

I know someone with a Qashqai ArthurandGeorge and it looks gorgeous, but I am going to get something smaller and a lot less glamorous

Skoda cheap as chips and brill and basically a VW/Audi - so so easy to drive on my 4th!

Used BMW 320 Diesel. You get 63 mpg. I chose this car after reading the Which Car magazine for used cars after my Cayenne broke down 11 times in 6 months and only had 40k on the clock. It is reliable, cheap to run and you can't beat BMW or Audi for performance in this price range used. Good luck

We stick with skoda or seat. VW Audi group but without the price tag. DH just got a seat Leon 1.4 turbo petrol and it goes like s**t off a shovel as well as being pretty economical. I like the skoda yeti.

That said I am contemplating a vw transporter as my next car!

you can't beat BMW or Audi for performance in this price range used

But if you wanted performance you wouldn't buy a 320d