You do not say what age your Golf is and what mileage it done. A Mk 7 Golf could date from 2013 and with high miles it would not be worth a lot more than your £5000 budget meaning you would bank no cash.

Alternatively it could be a far more recent car with low miles.

Whichever it is getting a car for £5000 which is

"Reliable

Reasonable running/maintenance costs"

is not necessarily that easy. It could turn out to be a money pit.

When most people swap cars it for a newer more reliable one not an older probably less reliable one.

You need to reconsider.

Thanks for the advice.

The car is 2015. I just also replied to another user but I've basically just had to pay up £1500 in repairs for faulty timing despite having a timing kit with only 12k miles on it. I bought the car in 2020 for £10k instead of an older model for peace of mind. That's not really relevant now I know that there is no peace of mind and I'm quite happy to trade in for an older model.

Why on earth did a mere 7yr old Golf with such a tiny mileage need 'a brand new timing kit'??

The car is a 2015 so in 2020 it was 5 years old. When we bought the Fabia I made enquires at VAG to find out what the timing belt interval was. The selling garage told me 3 years or 30,000 miles which I did not believe for one minute, the Focus was 10 years or 100,000 miles. This is a copy of the e-mail I received back

We recommend the cam belt is first checked at 60,000 miles, and every 20,000 miles thereafter. If there is no damage at these points the cambelt will not need changing. If the belt is not changed, regardless of condition, it must be replaced at 120,000 miles or when the vehicle is 5 years old, whichever comes first.

It was due by age on the OP's car so the selling garage did the work required at the vehicles age.

But its possible that the recent expense may have resulted from the work being badly done or being done with faulty parts but that was 12,000 miles ago. I would have expected poor workmanship would have shown up before then but to get anywhere with a claim the faulty parts would need inspection by an independent engineer. Has this been done?

Interesting that despite the OP's experience of poor reliability and customer service with his Golf, four out of the five cars he is looking at are also VAG. So if bought as a 2.0TDI will all have variations of that same engine.