My daughter is a single parent with a four-year-old child and very happy with her 04 plate, manual, petrol, Jazz, but wants to change it for a new or nearly new five-door vehicle which is cheap to run and is as reliable as the Jazz.

She will probably go for another Jazz but would like to know if you could suggest any alternatives which would be a bit more girlie rather than mummsy? She would probably spend around £7K/£8K plus the value of the existing Jazz. Being a single female parent and living out in the sticks, reliability is extremely important.