Agree with others about petrol being less of a gamble.

Any 7 or 8 year old car is a gamble but old Ford and VW's diesels pre DPF do appear to go on and on. We still have some 9 year old Vauxhall combo 1.7 diesels on our fleet that have done galactic mileages with no major issues but I hate to drive them.

Thanks for the replies so far folks. I am aware of electrics on french cars, reading a few car magazines taught me that! I was thinking maybe a 307 HDi but otherwise English?japanese would be the preference.

The reason a 1.4 would suit is the cheaper car tax, as well as dropping my insurance costs. The current Galant is insurance group 13! I guess my aim is to bring down the overall cost of running a car which is why the comments on petrol econmy and value of used models will broaden the search. I'm off to do more research : )

Cheers!

For once I agree with you.

I wonder if the French, who have always appeared very loyal to their own cars, spend larger sums on maintenance than us.

Outside central Paris, the average age of their cars seems higher than ours too, and I find it hard to believe that they're down at the garage every month sorting out their cars' electrics.