Cheap used cars

Finding a cheap used car that meets your needs may be easier than you think. While new cars are increasingly expensive, there are lots of excellent used cars that are comparatively affordable and could be just what you’re looking for, whether you’re after a city runabout or a family-friendly cruiser.

A used car that’s been well cared for represents great value and could cost you a lot less to buy and run than a brand-new car. Advances in technology mean that even cheap modern cars typically come with lots of useful features and safety equipment. There have been big advances in fuel-efficiency, too, and as well as having petrol and diesel options you can now choose hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure-electric models.

The best cheap used cars give you lots of useful modern features at a price that’s a lot lower than you’d pay for an equivalent brand-new model. It’s worth doing plenty of research before choosing a car to make sure you find one in good condition that will fit your lifestyle and your budget.

One thing you should consider how you’ll pay for the car – you may choose to buy it outright or take out a finance agreement. Either way, you should make sure that the overall amount you pay is affordable.

There are lots of cheap cars that represent great value for money, but we’ve picked a few of our favourites across different types. All of these cars can be bought for less than £10,000.

If you’re after something to nip around the city, check out the fuel-efficient and extremely reliable Toyota Aygo, or the chic and cheeky Fiat 500. For something larger, the Ford Fiesta is a brilliant choice, while the Hyundai i10 is a great all-rounder that comes with a seven-year warranty from new.

Need something bigger? The Renault Captur and the Nissan Qashqai are very popular small(ish) SUVs, while the Vauxhall Astra and the Peugeot 308 are excellent mid-size hatchbacks. If you’re after an electric car, check out the practical and well-proven Nissan Leaf.

Our guides to the best affordable used cars:

Electric cars can be more expensive to buy than petrol or diesel models. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t cheap electric cars available. These are just a few of what we think are the best affordable electric cars.

As well as the Nissan Leaf mentioned above, the BMW i3 is a great electric city car, while the Renault Zoe is a compact electric hatchback that’s very affordable and gives you a good battery range and a surprisingly large boot for your money. For something larger, check out the value-for-money MG ZS EV.

Automatic cars tend to be more expensive than their manual equivalents, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great affordable automatic cars around. We’ve rounded up our favourite automatic cars overall, but if you’re shopping at the cheaper end of the spectrum, there are still lots of cars to recommend.

For city cars, check out the surprisingly roomy Kia Picanto and the Skoda Citigo;  for something larger, the brilliantly practical Honda Jazz is a great choice. Need something even larger? The Dacia Duster is fantastic value for money in whatever specification you choose and the automatic model is no exception. The Vauxhall Mokka also represents a lot of car for your money.

If you don’t mind looking at slightly older and/or higher mileage cars, you can find larger automatic cars for less than £10,000, including the Hyundai i40 and the Vauxhall Insignia.

No matter how cheap the car, insurance for young drivers can be a big expense. Luckily there are lots of options for cars with low insurance groups to help to keep premiums down.

There are many small hatchbacks, like the Hyundai i10, Skoda Fabia and Volkswagen Polo that offer the lowest insurance group, while other recommendations include the Kia Rio with its seven-year warranty, the dinky but impressively roomy Volkswagen Up and the Nissan Micra, which gives you  impressive performance considering its Group 1 insurance status.

With the cost of living steadily rising, some clever decisions when buying your next car could save you a chunk of money. Pick a car that doesn’t require you to pay car tax (officially known as Vehicle Excise Duty), or which falls into one of the lowest bands for car tax, and you could save hundreds of pounds each year.

If you pick a modern electric car, like the Fiat 500 Electric, the MG5 estate or the Tesla Model 3, you don’t have to pay any car tax (until 2025) but you can get the same benefit by picking from certain older cars registered before April 2017. This is when new tax rules came into play, meaning that cars with low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions registered before that date still fall into zero car tax status.

There’s a wide range of such cars to choose from, including hybrids like the Toyota Prius and the Hyundai Ioniq to city cars like the Kia Picanto, estates like the Skoda Octavia and SUVs like the Nissan Qashqai.

There are many ways to save money on your car’s running costs. These include buying a car that has a good fuel economy rating, according to official tests – the higher the miles-per-gallon (mph) rating, the better.

Generally speaking, small fuel-efficient cars are cheap to run because they use less fuel and cost less to insure. Depending on where you drive and how you charge them, electric cars also can be cheap to run, especially if you have a home charger.

How you drive your car will also make a difference: to save cash in the long run, drive in a more efficient way to save fuel (or maximise battery range in an electric car) and keep your car maintained to make sure it runs as efficiently as possible.