Our current car, ford fusion, is on the way out, so looking to replace it in the next few months. Have been looking around a bit but nothing much jumping out that meets our criteria

Criteria are:
Has to be automatic; petrol; 5-door, either smaller estate or SUV.
Ideally less than 10 years old, fuel economy 30mpg+, and under 75k miles.
Reasonable repair costs and availability of parts.
Ability to use a towbar-mounted bike rack (which, I think, rules out anything where the spare wheel is mounted on the back – i.e. older Honda CV4s)
Reliable (inasmuch as a car that age/millage would be)

Budget is £5k – pie in the sky, or are there options?
TIA

Fabia? Ibiza?

Seat Leon ST (estate) if you can find a DSG model for your price range.

Honda Jazz or Nissan Note?

Seat Leon ST (estate) if you can find a DSG model for your price range.

The Leon estate is still pretty new, I think you’d struggle to get one for £5k. But I did really like the one that I had on a test drive.

Focus estate would be the obvious, if you are happy with your current Ford?

Family or just you?

Our Ibiza estate (st) is 2012, 1.4 (t he 16v simple one), 62k and worth around £3-4k. Small, nippy around town, huuuge boot, take a towball or roof rack.
It’s not quick or glamorous – but it’s a reliable, cheap workhorse for us as a small second car. Engine parts are daft cheap compared to new 1.2tsi or 1.4tsi/tfsi, all the rest is VW Polo underneath.

If you need bigger, I would go Civic, Auris (we nearly had instead of Ibiza) or Avensis.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far – I’ll check those out. Just to answer a few queries/give more detail…
Doesn’t need to be huge, it’s just the two of us – I like the fusion as I can get a bike in with the front wheel off and seats down, so something similar would be good. Towbar rack is for going away on longer trips/giving riding mates a lift.
Also doesn’t need to be glamorous – I’ve had a fusion for six years after all!

Guess the key question will be how likely it is to get any model in an automatic.

Civic hatchback of that age/budget isn’t an estate but more practical than other estates I’ve owned – huge boot and flip-up seats make it easy to carry just about anything I needed to. Plenty of IKEA trips for wardrobes, sofas, etc all done fine in that car.

Get the 1.8 petrol with the regular auto, not the i-Shift though.

Berlingo.

Civic the standout. The one with the round back, great load space. Autos pretty rare.

Nice car.

Civic the standout. The one with the round back, great load space. Autos pretty rare.

Nice car.

Autoboxes on older Toyotas iffy, although older a avensises are lovely cars

You’ll get a nice Focus estate for that money.

Citroen C3 Picasso – £5k will buy you a 2012/13 1.6 Auto with 54k or you can buy mine 😉

Ford B-Max
Fiesta based, handles really well, terrific fun to drive, has sliding rear doors, so rear roofline is higher than a regular hatchback or estate, and with the front doors open there’s moor side access.

Yeti should be doable at that price. Plenty of space for bikes in wheels off and not too big.