I am looking for a car for my family to drive with three essentials; safety, economy and reliability. I am thinking of solid SAAB-like safety rather than gizmos, and the economy should come from an optimised petrol engine rather than hybrids or batteries.

They currently have the use of an outstanding diesel Yaris but there are rather a lot of daughters and modern diesels seem troublesome. Manufacturers from the east of Europe and Asia seem possible (not French or Italian) and I guess it should be recent secondhand – a two or three-year-old. I would like to be inside £10,000, but could go higher if there were real advantage.