Thanks Auristocrat but I did consider the hybrid but the battery is not a lifetime warranty and costs a lot of money if & when it will need replaced. My cousin was quoted nearly £6K to renew a battery on a hybrid

I wouldn't worry. I've only ever heard of Toyota packs giving up on vehicles with spaceship milages on them, at which point a secondhand pack is the better option as you're over the warranty limit anyway.

The Honda ones used in the Civic and Insight seem to be a bit ropey though. One of my colleagues has just his Civic's hybrid system comprehensively turn its toes due to a failed battery. That's the third one on fleet to do this.

If you're a pensioner looking to buy a car to get you to the graveyard, I'd suggest some extra factors to consider. Servicing / repairs is the most obvious. Which make is the closest servicing centre to your home? If it's Toyota 3 miles up the road, that would sway me over Honda, if they were 25 miles away for example.

I'd totally agree that a small petrol engine is what makes most sense. All other things being equal, that takes to straight to the Jap brands, Honda, Toyota etc.

How much internal space do you need? A Focus is a family car. Do you really only need a Fiesta sized one? Even an 'Up'-sized one?

Automatic would probably be nice for you.

Why buy new. At 5,000 miles a year, a 3 year old car would only cost 50% of the new price, and most will last a total of 15 years at your annual mileage. You may not want to leave any money behind in due course, but why pay the Government 20% of a higher price in VAT if you don't need to!!

We have a 12 reg Hyundai i20 (which replaced a Mazda 2) and a 62 reg Toyota Auris (which replaced a 59 reg Auris).

I found that my 2009 Auris was cheaper to service than the Mazda 2. Minor services for the Mazda were around 199 pounds and major services 250-299. With the Auris the minor services were 140 and the major 199.

The majority of Toyota dealers now offer Toyota's Fixed Price Servicing (http://www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toyota/bv/generic_editorial.jsp?navRoot=toyota_1024_root&fullwidth=true&noLeftMenu=true&forceText=%3cnone%3e&edname=Owners-Service-Servicing&id=Owners-Service-Servicing&zone=Zone+Ownership&sr=Mall) - which was introduced January 2012. Toyota offer this on all their vehicles regardless of age, whereas other manufacturers limit their Fixed Price Servicing schemes to cars aged 3 year plus. With my latest Auris, I have a service plan based on the Fixed Price Servicing costs - the first three services will cost me a total of 434 pounds.

We've also found the Auris is cheaper to service than our Hyundai i20.

Try an MX5

I second that. It's the funnest car in the world!