You don't want a small engine in a 'proper' sized car-it will feel gutless to drive and if you have to thrash it, it could turn in worse fuel economy than a larger engine.

Forget any preconceptions about 'grandma' cars. With a tiny budget and probably insurance premium concerns, you'll be lucky to get a car that can be put on the road and trundle on for a year. To get a 'bargain' you'll need to look at unfashionable cars:

Nissan Almera 1.5

vauxhall Astra 1.4

Hyundai Pony

Renault Megane 1.4/1.6e

The latter one is a good tip. The 1.6 8V is cheaper to insure than a lot of 1.4 16V cars and the extra mid range torque is more help to you than high RPM power. It'll turn in over 40 to a gallon to if you're careful.

You can get an old full size car with a big engine for less than a small car with a small engine-but you'll need a lot of no claims to make that bangernomics work.

Kia Rio and Mentor and Shuma, Hyundai Accent, Proton Compact and Persona...nothing exciting i'm afraid.

I assume you are wanting a 1.5 maximum engine for cheaper road tax, understandable, but in your budget you are missing out on the much better 1.6 engined cars such as Hyundai Lantra.

or one of these http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201115384810646/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-to/1000/maximum-age/up_to_10_years_old/seller-type/private_adverts/model/focus/make/ford/postcode/pl210we/page/3/radius/1500?logcode=p

I agree with comments above, in this price bracket the reputation or reviews of specific brands means nothing. Ive had people come to me and ask "is a VW Polo a good used buy?" and the fact is its impossible to tell, theres no right or wrong. What you do is you check out the cars thoroughly yourself, drive it, inspect it, if it has history with it then read it, make sure everything tallies and make a decision. The dealer is irrelivant, its not like you'll get warranties for cars of that price so ignore the dealer and just focus on the car.

And until the last couple of years i only ever bought cheap cars and it is perfectly possible to get a good cheap reliable used car for less than £1000, theres no reason why that cant be done. A couple of years ago a friend of mien at work needed a car quickly and he needed it cheap, and ended up with a 10 year old Daewoo Nubira, some dents and scuffs but low mileage and a full MOT and he's still got it today and has gone through 2 MOT's without problems and he paid £550 for it (including buying tax on the day). The car is less than inspiring but it goes and stops and causes no problems.

My mk1 Mondeo cost me just under £700 and it was four different shades of blue and was possibly even overpriced at that, but it went for three years trouble free.

Everybody knows a horror story of someone who bought a cheap used car, but there are good ones too.