My experience of Carrera is thet they are actually pretty good value for money… Not one for the bike snobs, but still “needs must” and all that…
I’ve got one of their road bikes for commuting and we got one of their womens MTBs for my missus a while ago…
I would say the wheels tend to let them down a bit, they are usable but I thrashed mine to bits in a pretty short time, worth keeping an eye on them and having a spoke key ready..
The frames are generally quite good (IMO) and the parts spec is normally on par with any other brands at the same price point.
They seem to be making a point of putting out good VFM commuter bikes at the minute, which I think shows they’re paying attention to the market.
There is the issue of having to deal with Halfords, but in fairness not all of there stores/staff are crap (just most of them), give the bike a proper going over your self once you’ve had it from them just to be sure.
But yeah, on a budget, need a bike, you could do far worse than a Carrera…