I'd buy a new'ish VW Lupo TDI. A premium hatchback with an excellent engine and a surprising performance-economy ratio.

What about a Daihatsu sirion? Toyota based, incredibly reliable, owners love them.

Lots on autotrader for around £2k.

I'll second that.

I had a 07 plate 1.0 version that was nippy and had loads of space. Totally reliable.

The previous generation ones are not blessed with looks but they are really well built.

Given the mature audience that buys them, they should be a good buy later in life (burnt out clutch notwithstanding ;) ).

For about £2k, in adition to Japanese petrol hatchbacks I'd also consider Hyundai Accents.

Jesus christ that's a horrible car. No, seriously, it is.

For £2k you can get a decent Focus, circa 02-04.

How many Accents have you had, Jamie? In terms of reliability and corrosion protection they are probably a better bet at ten years old than a Ford

You can buy a brand new Dacia Sandero or a Suzuki Alto for £5,999, so I wonder if you could find a demonstrator for less than that. At least you would actually have a reliable car under warranty and the fella in question would know he'd get to work every day...and he might be more likely to keep his job by turning up every day and not have to apologise to his guv'nor that he was late coz the car broke down. At least he'd be more certain of being able to repay the money spent on the car by staying employed ?

And you would know the airbags would work if required.

Indeed, but he's got £2k and he isn't going to get anything near new for that amount of money. I've suggested a Mk I Focus as I had one and it was great. All of the ideas will go on the list.

I have been combing through AT and the Kia Rio seems like a decent suggestion; I can base this on the one my sister's BF drove until it fell to bits, inherited from his mum. Anyone else had one?

No-one takes any notice of what I post but I'd make the point, for others to ignore, that maybe it's worth looking at how safe or unsafe some of these cars are.

You can buy a brand new Dacia Sandero or a Suzuki Alto for £5,999

Not at all KB, a very valid point.

I know for some people the the NCAP score of their car is a vitally important consideration, and whilst not ignoring the crash worthiness of a car it comes very low down the list of priorities when i'm spending a maximum of £2k, thats me though and i wouldn't wish to infleunce anyone else.

Reliability and durability, and increasingly simplicity, are what should be looked for in this case IMO.

Some differing views on Proton have emerged, i first mentioned the brand and feel i should qualify that as i seem to have upset one poster for not agreeing with a VW recommendation.

I didn't suggest Bobbins mate should go out actively searching for one, i meant that in the budget mentioned that a decent Proton shouldn't be ignored simply because of its badge...if anything the make makes excellent used buys because of badge snobbery, no worse than any other budget mass produced cars.

£2k might buy a 8/10 year old 120k mile 4 owner cloned eurobox, and it might well buy a 5/6 year old 30k miler 1 mature owner serviced every year little gem with the wrong badge, i know which my £2k would be spent on.

Bobbins mate has £2k to spend, wisely they don't appear to want to buy something on the never never thats going to depreciate like the UK economy of late.

Daughters chap has a Proton that cost him the princely sum of £250, its starts it stops it gets him to work, everything works on it and it keeps going, and best of all no toff in Wokingham/Gerrards Cross is getting richer by the day on the interest he isn't paying for the right badge.

PS, on the subject of crash worthiness, i saw this evening coming home from work in the wet greasy conditions several examples of the greater spotted lemming, one in particular stood out by a country mile, i hope one particular 57 plate Megane entering Kettering has a good NCAP rating because the bloke driving it is going to be putting it to the test in very short order the way he aims it, the female passenger he was presumably impressing will be sampling the same fate if she carries on with him....this bloke needs as many NCAP stars as they can muster. Unfortunately Fridays anytime after lunch are lemming leap time and thats been the case for decades.

Edited by gordonbennet on 08/11/2013 at 22:33