Our old car, sadly, needs replacing, as its bodywork is showing its age.

It is a 15-year-old Rover Kensington SE, 4 doors (or 5 if you count the boot), petrol engine, manual gear box. We purchased it when it was 4 years old.
We paid £125 road tax and £226 on comprehensive insurance in 2010.

We live on the Isle of Wight and mostly drive on island roads with about 6 trips to the mainland motorways a year. We are both retired and therefore have to purchase out of our limited savings. We cannot afford more than £4000-£5000 and we assume our car will have no secondhand value. We have little knowledge of more “modern” cars and need help.

Can you tell us which cars we should be looking at and if there are any years we should avoid? We want a newer car of similar specification and size so that it fits in our garage. We have noticed that some cars have almost no boot space. We need economic running and maintenance costs as again our pension is limited.