I've always had a soft spot for Ford Puma's, according to Auto Trader and FleaBay there are quite a few that fit your price range, but may have a few mopre miles than you wanted.

 

Get an old Honda Civic. Highly reliable and cheap as chips. You can even get an extremely high mileage one and still not have any hassle with it.

Same goes for Micras or any old Mazda.

Diesel Astras - very cheap, very reliable, very economical.

Buy French and you're asking for reliability issues, get a Fiat and you're likely to get a death trap (especially if it has 666 in both the Vin and insurance policy number).

 

How about a last generation Fiesta Ghia 96-99. I was looking at one last month for circa

 

- nice little car.

 

i had a P106D.... put a full GTI set of seats / door cards in, some wheels and it was a nice play to sit ( though crap to drive ) drove it for 2 years... serviced it once by changing the oil (

 

Yes, i have a F reg CRX, again Honda reliability and used for commuting to Bristol, no problems what so ever, 112k on the clock, keep what you know