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"As has been mentioned before, anything Korean or Japanese. Reliability more important than cheap replacement parts as they don't work out so cheap when you're fixing the thing every five minutes."
Absolutely true, and something I've been trying, and failing to point out to people for years.
70% of most repairs are labour costs anyway. The way to get these bills down is to (a) buy a car that doesn't break as much, and (b) buy a car with a simple, conventional design so that when it does go wrong it's straightforward, and therefore quick, to fix.
So yes, Japanese and Korean are usually good bets at this end of the market, especially when you see the prices some Korean cars sell for.
Add in the aforementioned "big car syndrome" of larger-engined vehicles being dirt-cheap due to the petrol consumption which isn't an issue for a runaround, and it's possible to get some real bargains if you look around.
The only other thing I'd say is that Fords and Vauxhalls can be decent options if you get a good one (more dogs about than the Japanese and Korean cars due to lesser build quality and the kind of people who buy the latter), not because of the parts prices but more that any backstreet will understand them. Some of the more obscure Korean cars can occasionally be a problem -- all cars do certain things a bit oddly, but if it's the first Kia Mentor (say) your guy has ever seen and (for example) the brake calipers work in a weird way he is more likely to take a while working the problem out.
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