Civic is an excellent choice and for that money you should be able to get a decent one. Lots of options for this sort of thing, theres the Focus, over 2000 on Auto Trader right now for under 3 grand and the great thing about that is you can afford to be picky, you dont need to settle for anything less than a great deal.

Other options include Toyota Yaris, the 1.3 petrol should be obtainable for 2-3k, insurance group 3. Good economy. Bit underpowered but it'll go. VW Polo aswell.

The last generation Ford Fiesta is a very good car, and a bigger car than you'd think. Such as this example on Auto Trader currently

www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20113541329...p

Note: I dont know where you live and ive used the postcode of Norwich's football ground due to doing a search for someone norwich based earlier, please dont think im weird :)

Agreed - the Civic would be a good choice, particularly if the kids are teeenagers or there are three of them, and need the ample rear room that it provides. You'd need to check that it has Isofix.

The Skoda Fabia and Toyota Corolla are worth looking at as well if you want something a little bigger trhan a supermini. Both should be reliable, particularly the Corolla.

Welcome to the forum. My guess is that you live near Manchester, as your nom de plume (your first car's number?) is a Manchester registration. 1967, just to show I'm a nerd.....

Edited by Avant on 08/09/2011 at 23:37