Apologies for long post but context is important to the question raised.

My daughter has a 2007 Jazz 1.4 DSi CVT with 82000 miles which she has had for 5 years and essentially got her real driving experience after passing her test.

It has a few war wound parking dings, a minor sc***e on passenger door, a ding on drivers front wing and the air con doesn't and hasn't since she had it( I suspect the condenser is holed as the front bumper is a slightly different colour so maybe had a minor prang before we had it).

As a car to learn to drive and get experience it has been excellent and I've done the yearly servicing including the CVT oil (ie: it doesn't have the notorious judder on take off)

Mechanically the engine and drivetrain have been very reliable.

On the MOT in February she had advises for wishbone bush, exhaust leak and rear suspension mounts as borderline as follows...

Seat belt anchorage prescribed area is corroded but not considered excessive

Nearside and offside rear inner wheel arch's, underseal applied and trim present. BORDERLINE (7.1.1 (a) (i))

Suspension component mounting prescribed area is corroded but not considered excessive Nearside and offside rear inner wheel arch's, underseal applied and trim present. BORDERLINE (5.3.6 (a) (i))

According to the MOT tester these are quite common areas on a Jazz and as it was done at a MOT only place, I've no reason to suspect he was angling for business.

We subsequently got ripped off by a mobile mechanic who we employed to do the MOT advises( a whole other story and yes they were a recommended person) and had to give it a new exhaust and cat at £500 from a fast fit place as he damaged the system along side having the wishbone done. For various reasons I had to ask him to stop work and leave.

At the time it was a needs must to get it back on the road quickly as she needed it for work.
So now she is thinking does she see if we can find someone to do welding to sort the rust advisories? But would we be chasing welding every year now it has started being necessary.

Or do we sc*** it (£250 offered by sc*** dealer) and find something else.

To get into a newer Jazz CVT auto, post 2011 after the ishift model(unreliable), she is looking at £6K or more which seems a lot even with the current used car inflation.

I haven't got a price for welding in replacement metal yet, but I'm guessing it will be around £1k as welding isn't cheap.

I've said maybe consider a Venga (I have one of these) or ix20, as apart from the magic seats they have similar space and aren't notorious for rust on the petrols (admittedly the diesel fuel tanks do suffer rust).

We did look at Vauxhall Zafira Tourer with the 1.4 Turbo engine and 6 speed torque converter auto but it appears they love eating head gaskets so reliability is questionable.

I appreciate its an 18 year old car, but when similar age models with more miles are advertising around £2k, it seems a shame to sc*** it after having to get the exhaust done and it having what appears to be low miles for its age. I've had a look and can probably reinstate the aircon if it is a condenser for around £150 - £200.

She needs auto / petrol / boot 350 litres or more / preferably cam chain / around £5k but can stretch for right car / not SUV stylee / working AC / not black.

To put it in her words, she wants "a car that goes brum and is as reliable as possible" (don't we all!!)