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Your budget really isn't enough for what you want.
Best bets IMHO are Yaris 1 and Daihatsu Sirion 05 on, but the better of these are at least £1700 and heading towards £3k asking price, particularly Sirions which tend to be really low mileage, can be found cheaper in manual form and they've got into the used market typical of this type of car they get bruised abused and neglected, you ideally want one having had only one or two previous mature owners.
They tend to be for sale at dealers, typical first owners don't normally sell privately, and who can blame them these days, so finding that decent little motor for sale privately at the home of the owner is going to be a needle in a haystack job.
Doing nothing to these cars, in pure bangernomics tradition, won't see a long life from them, proper Japanese cars are the most reliable out there but need to have (usually front only in this class) disc brakes cleaned and lubed properly or they will seize up, and it would be foolish indeed not to reasonably maintain, including some rudimentary rustproofing, all easy DIY, a relatively low mileage previously well cared for car only to halve its probable life expectancy for the sake of £50 a year in products and a few hours work on a sunny day.
The best of those two models, if decently cared for, i fully expect to see the reliable life of the superb little Toyota Starlet.
Left field choice, Daihatsu Materia.
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