i’m thinking of buying an older (under £1k) low emission car in the £30 tax bracket as a local runabout and a quick look on autotrader seems to suggest that the suzuki alto will offer me the best bet in terms of what i can get for my cash (sensible miles on the clock, 5 doors etc).

anyone have any experience of them; reliability, ease of working on, real world mpg etc?

Not got one of those but have a similar. Well 2 actually. Daihatsu charade. Seem to last better than alto and certainly bigger. I get 54mpg doing short school run our lass gets better with mixed miles. 30 to tax and cheap insurance and bills. Like i say we have 2 and cant fault it for what it was bought for. had one previously but it was written off by Yorkshire water 🙁

thanks firestarter, the diahatsu was on the list to.

whats spares and such like for them?

From memory bits ive bought are full exhaust fitted 200. Front pads discs and rear shoes 175 fitted. Tyres cheap as chips thats all i remember buying in the few years I’ve had them tbh great little cars

Oh just remembered about a week before old one got smashed new clutch 220 fitted

We had a small fleet of them as courtesy cars at work, very reliable, easy to drive, routine servicing is all that was needed. They even captured the small car chuck it about and enjoy handling, that actually made driving one fun.

Mrs had one a few years back- cheap to run and good mpg but horrible to drive and suffered from rust and electrical problems.

thanks. think a daihatsu charade may be the way to go.