For a few hundred pounds, you have to be careful that you aren't going to end up with a car that will cost you far more in repairs/maintenance just to jeep it on the road. So while large, older cars may seem attractive, they can be expensive to run. The key is get the newest and lowest mileage car you can for your budget. Japanese makes tend to be the best for reliability and for a few hundred pounds we've seen cars such as the Subaru Legacy estate. We've also seen several Nissan Primera estates - one very tidy one was a 1994 (M) 2.0-litre with just 64,000 miles.