After perusing the Kia and Hyundai used car locators, £6K could buy you a 2009/2010 Kia Rio 1.4 petrol, or a 2009 (09/59 reg) Hyundai i20. With the i20 the 1.2 seems to be the one to go for - performance is little different to the 1.4, and economy slightly better. The i20 was named as the best value best buy Supermini by Which? earlier this year.

Another car you could consider would be the Daihatsu Sirion - although Daihatsu are pulling out of Europe from 2013 (due to exchange rate issues), engines are shared with the Toyota Yaris (Daihatsu are majority owned by Toyota), and spares shouldn't be a problem.

Had you also thought of the Hyundai i10? Or the Toyota Aygo?

The i20 is currently being updated, although I believe the updates are minor details, with the main difference being a new nose job to match the rest of the family.

My wife just picked up an old-nose i20 for a very low price because the dealer was offloading the old-nose model. Whether you buy new or s/h, the facelift will be driving the old-nose model prices down.

5 years warranty is less than the Kia, but the i20 will still have some warranty remaining (assuming you pick up a 2010-2011 s/h) and will be better to drive than the old-model Rio (although the new Rio just out has been getting much-improved reviews and my wife test-drove one, she still preferred the i20).

Based on two months with the i20, we would certainly recommend it.

Edited by golfhacker27 on 13/06/2012 at 17:12