Autocar - First for car news and reviews

I'm looking for a second hand car, preferably under £5k and under 40,000 miles, for my wife to drive the baby boy around in. Not too old, has to have five doors (hatchback) and preferably be a little 'different' in terms of character. That doesn't mean it has to be fashionable, but just not boring. There's plenty of new metal out there that I like the look of, for example the Swift is one that comes to mind, as well as the new Daihatsu's like the Sirion, Materia and Terios, but nothing is old or cheap enough to get near to my £5k budget. The other criteria is safety - I thought I'd found the perfect solution in the Alfa Romeo 147, which seems ridiculously cheap, but the Euro NCAP test results are pretty diabolical and I'm not taking any chances with my baby boy on board. Must have aircon and alloys. Not fussed on anything else, although I suppose I would prefer a car that's cheap to run and also I prefer petrol to diesel. My shortlist at the moment is/was Alfa 147 (poor NCAP), Nissan X-Trail (too expensive to run), Alfa 156 Sportwagon (poor NCAP), Citroen C4, Dodge Caliber (not quite cheap enough yet), Mazda 3, peugeot 1007 (not easy enough to get into back seats with baby chair). Any ideas???

2000-2006 Subaru Impreza Hatch (sports wagon)?

Not to sure about NCAP but with the ANCAP (Aussie crash test) it scored 4 out of 5 stars, and the added bonus of AWD. My first bub is on the way soon and I am going to have no hesitation putting him or her in the Impreza. And it has plenty of character (the car that is).

Hope this helps.

How about a Rover 75 Tourer/MG ZTT. You can pick them up cheap, the BMW diesel is a smoothie. The NCAP I think is ok to good. My wife drives our kids around in ours quite often, and likes the comfort, the economy (we can get up to 600 miles bewteen fill ups), and I love it because it is different. Knock other Rover products if you like, but the 75 always had loads going for it. And its not the common default choice.

Mmm. Thanks - both are great ideas and both are ones that I hadn't thought of before. The MG is tempting, I have always liked it. The Subaru might be more tempting because my missus is from NZ and I know she's had Subarus in the past (they are cheap as chips over there compared to the UK) plus its a bit shorter for parking in London...

What about a Focus ? , specifically a Mk1.5 (Oct 2001 - December 2005), either a 2.0 zetec (insurance group 8), the 115 bhp lynx diesel (group 6) or maybe even an ST170 (group 14).

They are solid 4 star NCAP, the best to drive in it's class by a clear margin, reliable, spacious and well equipped. 2.0 zetec models came with 16 inch alloys, heated front screen, air con and 6cd in dash autochanger as standard.

I can see why you would want a 147 for it's looks - but there is nothing else mentioned that gets anywhere near a Focus.

Or, if you can live without a 5th door in exchange for a gigantic boot - the Volvo S60 is well worth a look.

£5k nets you a 2005 2.0T S.

Again - solid 4 star NCAP rating plus it's good looking, well built, quick (180bhp), makes a nice sound (5 cylinder), very pleasant to drive and very well equipped even as a base model (cruise, climate control, 16 inch alloys, kick ass cd player, etc, etc).

It's the five-door bit that makes it tricky - I was going to suggest an early Audi S3. How about, from deep left-field, the previous generation Volvo V40 T4? Not only are they safe and dirt cheap - but with 200bhp on board the thing is an absolute sleeper. It's not the sharpest steer, but for the full Q-car effect prise off the "T4" badges and replace them with "1.9D" ones before stunning some traffic light rudeboys.

Some already interesting ideas, but what about skoda Octavia RS. Genuine rocket racer, or the Fabia RS. Unlikely fast lane heros, good price, cheap to run, and the Octavia is a very tidy handler. Or the equivalent Seat Leon mk1, again cheap and fun, and looks like a modern alfa sud.

julianphillips:

There's plenty of new metal out there that I like the look of, for example the Swift is one that comes to mind, as well as the new Daihatsu's like the Sirion

 

You'll get a nearly new one of these for 5k no problem. It's likely to be 1.0l though. It is the engine that is in the Yaris/Aygo/107/C1. Even the base models come with 4 airbags, 4 elec winders and air-con.

3/5yr warranty to boot and Japanese built.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/

 

They have plenty on sale right now.

 Thanks all.  Have 'narrowed' it down to the Impreza wagon, Daihatsu Sirion, Seat Altea 'Stylance', Audi A2, some kind of Skoda RS...

Sorry, another one to the mix for you.

How about a SAAB 9-3?

 

That's an interesting idea.  Just looked it up and saw, local to me, a new shape '04 plate 2.2 TiD Linear with full leather, alloys, electric everything, 43k on the clock and just £4,500.  Very tempting as I know for a fact that the boot can swallow the Bugaboo pushchair!