James Ruppert: How £1000 can bag an engaging estate car

There have been some spectacular examples of well-bought budget cars by Autocar readers. (Please see this week’s ‘Reader’s ride’ for one.) Sometimes, we can get lucky, but what generally happens is that we are buying on our wits and sifting through pages of cheap classifieds. So it’s always nice when I’m asked to narrow down possible choices.

The latest wish list is from Sam, who wants petrol power, an estate ideally but a hatch will do, and something “interesting” to drive, although that’s very subjective, and he needs it to be decent on the motorway, whatever that really means – and all for £1000.

First off, I have a lot of time for the increasingly unfashionable estate car format, so I’ll stick with that rather than a compromise hatch. Straight away, I find myself looking at a 2001 Ford Mondeo in white. It’s a 2.0-litre Ghia, too, with 150k miles and a four-owner past. There are bills for a new battery and tyres and it has been serviced, which may just be an oil and filter change, but that’s better than nothing. It’s yours for £495, in a ‘company car forces sale’ scenario. Best of all, a Mondie is certainly interesting to drive. All boxes ticked then, with £500 to spare for any unforeseen issues.

Then again, if the Mondeo is a bit boring and safe, a Volvo V40 is an interesting and rather more exclusive sort of banger buy. I stumbled across a 2000 example with just a couple of owners for £950. Not cheap, but clearly a cared-for private car with an absolute ton of verified history covering its 116k miles of life. It should be a very safe buy and didn’t look like it’d been eaten by rust, as some have.

When operating in the marginal motor area, we return again to the marques that are consistently reliable and just get on with the job of working for a living. That’s why a Toyota Avensis 1.8 VVT-i T3-X estate would be perfect. So a 2003 example with 105k miles is yours for £950. It has a towbar and virtually no description, which makes this a motor to go and see.

There’s more Far Eastern sensibleness in the shape of the somewhat more stylish Honda Accord. A 2007 2.0i-VTEC SE Tourer is not the biggest load-lugger, but it might be one of the more comfy. At a dealer, I saw a 2007 model with 118k miles for £799 that, on closer examination, did have some rather bumpy bodywork, but then you buy Hondas for their reliability rather than beauty. I’d probably spend more time finding a cleaner and tidier example with a private seller.