As you're doing around 10-15,000 miles a year we'd suggest a diesel, and as you're quite tall, something reasonably-sized so there's good legroom and head space too. Something like the current shape Honda Civic would be ideal (go for the i-CDTi engine). There are a few about in your price range, but a lot of them are with high mileages. Give these a miss and find some with lower miles. We've seen a couple with 50-60,000 miles which isn't amazingly low, but the Civic is a well-built and incredibly reliable car that's also very comfortable and good to drive. The i-CDTi engine will average 55.4mpg too.