I had looked at the Duster, but am a tad wary of diesels and expensive bits going wrong. Not sure if the petrols are so well regarded?
So you should. But as you are covering 15k per annum, I might consider a few Diesel engines, even at this price point (one of which would be the Renault 1.5DCI as used in the Duster).
Re the Duster petrol engines, the n/a 1.6 is OK but the 1.2TCE, maybe not so much.
One thing though, with your budget, I think you should forget about an auto unless you actually need one (which doesnt sound like it is the case). Your pool of potential decent cars is going to be small enough as it is without slimming it down further. An auto is also going to be more expensive than a manual, so a £3-4k auto is going to be older than a £3-4k manual, and a £3-4k manual is itself not going to be in the first flush of youth. Also, going back to your mileage, a torque converter auto, while usually reliable, is not a particularly efficient transmission. You could be looking at a 20%+ reduction in economy going from a family sized manual to a t/c auto.
As others have said, with such a small budget, you need to be judging each car on condition, service history and MOT history rather than looking for specific makes and models. Yes, an average Toyota, Honda, or Mazda is likely to be more reliable than something like an average Renault, but a well looked after Renault could be a better buy than a neglected Toyota, Honda or Mazda. Ideally you want something being sold privately rather than from a dealer. Reasons being that a dealer is expecting to make a profit, so a £3-4k car won't have cost them any more than £2.5-3.5k. And don't go thinking a cheap car from a dealer will give you peace of mind, any warranty offered won't be worth much more than the paper it is printed on and he will do everything he can to get out of paying for any problems or faults with the car (big ones anyway).
One last thing, forum member and ex motor trader SLO says Gumtree is a better source for lower priced cars rather than Autotrader or Ebay.
Edited by badbusdriver on 04/10/2022 at 13:34
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