A call for help from the STW massive:

My nephew needs a car to get him the 45 miles to and from the research site for his MSc dissertation. He’s 21, so obviously the main concerns should be economy, running costs (particularly insurance), reliability and being cheap-as-chips to buy…

Problem is he’s just racked up 20,000 miles driving round Oz in a 4.0L Ford Falcon wagon to which he became quite attached. He also wants something that will be able to take a couple of kayaks or a load of climbing clobber – together with the mates who’ll use said kit, and he has the malign influence of an uncle who wants him to get something ‘interesting’. (You can attach almost anything to almost any car with enough ingenuity, after all).

So, with an arbitrary limit of £1,000 (but ideally lower – I have no idea how much he can afford), what would you do?

Big old volvo/mondeo/saab estate

sharambralaxy

An old Merc E-class wagon… truly colossal inside

Oooh, good shout, Perchy. Specially if he did something like this. Would suit him down to the ground…

Specially if he did something like this. Would suit him down to the ground…

If he did something like that he wouldn’t be taking his mates anywhere….

Old galaxy would be a disaster. They are expensive to maintain, go wrong a lot and cost a fortune in fuel and insurance and tyres.

I reckon a 1.6 petrol Xsara Picasso would suit him down to the ground and you could get a good one for a grand without much searching.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201609037391013