New or used car - too many choices, recommendations welcome

[Mycarsmellsoflavender]

My 12 year old Honda FRV is not going to pass its MOT in January without substantial work and I would like to replace it in the next 2 months. Previously we have always bought used cars outright and then kept them until they die and was planning to do the same this time but with the new scrappage scheme that several manufacturers are offering, would I better off buying new? Even with an MOT, resale value of the FRV is low - big dent in the back thanks to a hit and run driver in a festival car park and a deep scratch along the full length of one side thanks to a lovely person with a sharp implement along with various self inflicted small scratches thanks to the hedge alongside the drive .

I'm not really into new cars - the reality is that I'll still treat it the same as an older car and no doubt it will get its fair share of scratches and mud coating fairly quickly. Rural agricultural area and roads are brown with mud from December to March and lots of uneven road surfaces. Almost all my driving is short journeys of 10 miles or less with up to 3 passengers ( 10 yo sits in front so don't need 3 in back) on school run. School car park is a field which also gets muddy.

I have cash up to about 10k. I would like my replacement car to be smaller and therefore easier to park and more economical to run. Looking to get at least 50 mpg. No preference for fuel type. Would also consider electric but worried that the EV market is changing so rapidly that it's not the right time to buy an EV. Used to drive a Jazz which was perfectly adequate for my needs although I wouldn't want any smaller. Any recommendations please?

Certainly suggest sticking with Japanese. What’s up with the FRV that will fail its MOT?

Brake calipers. Makes a noise after about 20 minutes of continuous driving. But it’s also very fuel hungry (31 mpg) and a lot bigger than I need.

Shouldn’t be too expensive to sort the calipers. The cheapest car to own is usually the one you already have. Your going to spend £10k to save a few pounds on fuel. Might be worth just doing some sums on paper.

I have considered that already as that was my first thought too. DH reckons just short of a grand to fix the calipers. After which I've still got a 2005 car with 90000 miles on the clock, a rusty undercarriage and some very visible damage to the bodywork, and because of its age is likely to have more things going wrong with it in the next few years. I think I would rather put that £1000 towards a newer car. 10k is the maximum - I just gave it as ballpark figure of what I can afford. If I buy a used car, I will spend considerably less.

Nowhere near that much to fix the brakes. Four refurbed calipers, discs and pads all round is about £450 for the parts and I doubt you need all that. Add in a couple of hundred labour max. I’d be surprised if it cost more than £500. You could buy a cheap used car and fund yourself in the exact same situation.

There shouldn't be that many expensive problems with a Honda that's only done 90,000 miles. My old Skoda Octavia is still going strong almost 3 years after I got rid of it with 145,000 on the clock.

You'd think so with a Honda, but sometimes it's the little things that go wrong. Up until last summer I had a 13 year old Jazz with 70000 miles which had an ongoing damp problem which I'd had fixed by Honda but then reoccurred a couple of years later, a 'crunchy' reverse gear which only engaged first time if it was a Tuesday with an R in the month and had been seen by Honda several times without getting to the bottom of it, and lastly the electric heater bars in the rear windscreen failed. The ongoing damp problem was the reason behind my user name! DH borrowed the car and tipped a whole bottle of artificial lavender fragrance into the foot wells to make it smell better. I hate lavender! So we arranged to swop cars until the smell had dissipated. About a month later he crashed it on a wet road and wrote it off. I am still driving the FRV which was his car. The next day he bought another MPV as we needed something urgently for family trips of more than twenty miles so we now have two big cars, hence why I would like the change it for a smaller one as we only need one MPV at a time.

Thanks to anyone who had input. Thought I would update: I've just bought a used Nissan Leaf and got £2000 off the price for trading in the FRV under the Nissan Switch (scrappage) scheme.