Our much loved 2008 Mazda 5 TS2 was written off last week and we are now in a difficult position looking for a new car with a very limited budget. This will be around £5,000-6,000. The car needs to be very reliable, safe, cheap to run and big enough for a family of five, but does not need to be a seven seater.

Cheaper road tax and fuel economy would also be great. I like the Audi A3, Seat Leon, Volkswagen Golf and Volkswagen Golf Plus as possible choices, but it does not have to be any of these.

Other alternatives would be really great too. Are there any good places such as Cargiant to buy from, or just use likes of Autotrader etc?