You want something 'a bit different', but you have on your list, Peugeot 206, Vauxhall Astra and Renault Clio. How would you consider them different?!.

Seriously though, at that price point, there are certainly bargains to be had, the problem is finding them. You don't really want, or need to be making a list, just go on Autotrader, Ebay, Gumtree or whatever, and look at what you have locally as there is no point in travelling hundreds of miles to see a £1k car. Look online to see the MOT history of any given car, this will give an indication of how well or otherwise a car has been looked after. And, ideally, you want to be buying from a private seller, someone who has owned the car for a number of years. Meeting the owner, seeing the house, getting a feel for the person, that will also give you some indication on how the car will have been treated.

To get the best car for your money at that price you want something unfashionable but not obscure. Unfashionable as it will be cheap and not be snapped up by others, not obscure as otherwise parts and insurance become expensive. Perhaps something grandad like a Nissan Almera, Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Toyota Corolla.

The MX5 and Z3 won't show any bargains, although will be cheaper this time of year. The RAV4 is perhaps too fashionable (as an SUV) to be cheap. A Merc and Lexus is an expensive car with expensive parts that will be an old car with expensive parts. You could buy the Lexus and just scrap it with the first major failure however, people do that and run them for five plus years due to their inherent reliability. I like the Mazda but watch out for rust, ditto the Tigra. The others are all options if you are patient enough to find a good one - which is key. If you have to make a forced purchase it will end up being the first thing that comes along.

Why are you NOT worried about tax and insurance when you can only afford a car costing £1k or so on a low annual mileage? They would make up a much larger percentage of your annual spend, especially for cars that were expensive to buy when new or are from 'premium' (luxury/sports) brands.

Parts are expensive, insurance higher, CO2 figures and thus VED is higher - don't forget ONLY late model cars only pay the £0 - £145 - older ones, like my 2005-build Mazda3 1.6 petrol cost around £230pa to tax; a Mercedes or BMW would be similar or sometimes a LOT worse (for performance models) and likely to attract a large insurance premium. A Jimny can rust and is heavy on fuel compared to similar sized cars.

At least my car (other than the VED) is relatively cheap to run. Older RAV4s are long in the tooth and whilst decent at the time, are showing their age and are I'm told very easy to steal (especially the spare tyre on th back door).

If I were you, if you just need A to B transport and can get by with a smaller car, then do so, at most of the Focus sized car. I'd stick to basic models of ones like the Ford Fiesta, Focus, Mazda 2 or 3, Jazz (if you can find a good one for that price) and so on. Less to go wrong, still decent to drive, cheap to run, lots of parts around, reliable.