Cheapest car to run for less than £1k

[Mr Tom]

Work have taken away are company cars so need to sort a car out ASAP. Saving for a house so as cheap as poss. Will be doing around £15k pa. Not bothered about luxuries etc as will only be a year or so. Needs ideally to be sub £1k and as cheap to run as poss. Have seen some Skoda Fabia diesels? There are some vag cars with 1.9 non turbo engines. Are they reliable/frugal. Cheers

[e30m3Mark]

Ran a Fabia diesel as a taxi and it was incredibly reliable, frugal with fuel and pretty comfortable. It was also an estate, so a decent amount of room. Vauxhall Zafira did the same job, equally cheap to run, but hateful.

[anonymous-user]

Last year I ended up with an 07 Megane 1.5 DCi with 62k on the clock, years MOT (no advisories in 5 years) and recent cambelt change for £1200. Everything works (even the aircon) and it feels as tight as a French car can feel.

£30 annual road tax, 60MPG minimum (72 on a run is my best) and over the last 10k miles I have replaced the wiper blades and serviced it with the cheapest oil and filters from eBay for £30.

Its the cheapest motoring I have had in 25 years of driving and I love it.

Anything with the VAG 1.9 TDI is probably a better bet but I doubt it is as cheap to run as the Renault.

Anything perceived as reliable such as the VAG 1.9 TDI or Toyota D4D in the Yaris will be expensive. Anything unloved such as the Renault will be newer, cheaper and lower milage. Gamble is up to you. Around a grand I would have though a 1.9 TDi would be pretty ropey.

[mrtwisty]

The PH consensus answer to this question is always small Japanese petrol. Cheap to buy, plentiful (so quick and easy to find), incredibly reliable (so less likely to hit you with a repair bill), frugal on fuel.

My money would go on a mk1 Yaris. Plenty of sub 100k miles examples available for significantly less than £1k. Chain driven cams, so no timing belt gambles. 1.0 petrol is capable of 60mpg when driven with a light right foot. Very light, so tyres/clutch/suspension last basically for ever (OH's old one was on 130k when sold, orignal clutch, original springs & dampers, set of tyres lasted over 40k miles).

Pretry hateful to drive of course....

[anonymous-user]

I have an 05 Megane 1.5dci, paid 500 quid, spent 50 quid in last 7 months. 55mpg all day, cheap tax as well.

[IanCress]

If you're doing 15k miles a year then I presume you're getting a reasonable car allowance. Have you checked that there is no age limit on the car you're allowed to run? Some companies will stipulate that your car must be no more than (for example) 5 years old.

[magnum555]

I would suggest a Toyota Yaris, cheap to buy and run, can't go wrong with them.

[magnum555]

mrtwisty said:

My money would go on a mk1 Yaris.

Pretry hateful to drive of course....

Don't agree with this in general they are fun cars to drive especially the SR and T Sport models.

[zedx19]

IanCress said:

If you're doing 15k miles a year then I presume you're getting a reasonable car allowance. Have you checked that there is no age limit on the car you're allowed to run? Some companies will stipulate that your car must be no more than (for example) 5 years old.

Yeah worth checking this, at a previous employer if I opted out the car had to be no older than 3 years, have full service history and be respectable, whatever that meant! I never opted out as it was such a naff scheme and would have meant I'd loose the fuel card as well. Employer I joined 2 years back has no limits whatsoever and I can keep the fuel card, so run about in a tuned 5 pot Focus ST and use the pool car for longer journeys.

On topic, an old VAG 1.9 TDI, pre DPF would be about as cheap as they come.

[dave_s13]

If you're on the motorway a fair bit you don't really want a small car, in my experience of a small french biscuit tin with an engine anyway.

We have a 1.2 clio shed and on the motorway at 65-70mph your ears start to bleed a touch. Round town it's brilliant though.

[carboy2017]

I would suggest a Honda Accord 02-03 plate
or a VW Golf or Passat from personal experience

[Mr Tom]

Morning Everyone,

Thanks for all the replies, I will have a look into all suggested. Currently in a company Suzuki alto. So I have experience of the small Japanese show box. It’s a dilemma whether to go down that route again or diesel with the extra things to go wrong ie the turbo... I have seen a Toyota Yaris diesel local to be for £1200 which looks reasonable. I never thought I would have a French car but that is more badge snobbery than anything else.

Basically work won’t have a limit on age or anything like that. They have just stressed that if it breaks its down to you to get to work and you will lose money if you can’t. In terms of money they are giving us £1k pre tax which is stingey and so far I have rejected. Hopefully they will up it. Then 45ppm for work mileage.

[mrtwisty]

magnum555 said:

mrtwisty said:

My money would go on a mk1 Yaris.

Pretry hateful to drive of course....

Don't agree with this in general they are fun cars to drive especially the SR and T Sport models.

Oh they can be fun alright, especially if you fit decent rubber - there is something giggle inducing about pogoing down a bumpy road, body lolloping all over the place, but still sticking to the road well through the corners. But... the 1.0, as a car to travel distance in - not nice. VERY cheap though, hence the recommendation!

[Shiv_P]

Find a 1.6 focus mk1 without rust and you're golden

[exelero]

I’ve got the focus. 1.6 nothing ng ever went wrong my I’m the past 3 years, past its last 3 MOT’s with nothing no major to worry about and it has a 400mile range out of 55 litres which is quite good food r mostly town driving. It likes motorway too, 3k rpm at 70 so not too loud, fun in corners too. I have done about 15-20k miles in it a year which is not too bad. Mine is rust free too and thinking of getting is soon, if you want mine you can have it way below 1000£. Fun in corners and can cruise too.