The top 30 used cars - bag a class leading car for less

We come with good news: by turning your attention to the second-hand market, there are plenty of bargains to be found.

We’ve trawled the classifieds to put together a handy guide to sourcing a budget version of our best of the best, from the BMW 3 Series to the Maserati MC20 and beyond.

In those cases where some of our top 50s are too new to have a used version, we have swapped it for the next-best thing – or a wildcard alternative.

The current-generation 992 has resisted depreciation remarkably well: the cheapest example we found in the classifieds was £76,000. But the previous 991, launched in 2012, is less than half as much.

Yet it’s every bit the driver’s car, and maybe even a bit better suited to British roads than the later 992 thanks to its slightly tighter proportions. Entry-level 991s also come with a sonorous, naturally aspirated flat six rather than the duller turbocharged engine you get in the current equivalent.

Nominative determinism at play here, but a diesel Superb Estate is quite possibly all the car you could ever need. Spacious, comfortable and fairly reliable to boot; there’s a good reason why so many end up as minicabs.

We would steer clear of those that have been halfway to the moon in taxi service, tantalising though those sub-£5k prices might seem. Twice that much will secure you a well-maintained low-miler with the desirable 2.0-litre turbodiesel that will run long past the time you’re bored of it. 

With so few examples of the GR86 out there, what about its predecessor? The GT86 is a small sports car with less than 200bhp and eco-friendly tyres that just happen to lend themselves rather well to travelling sideways, is one of the finest-handling cars you’ll come across, and is available from £9k. Being a Toyota, it’s reliable with regular servicing.

Check, however, for a lumpy idle and, because of the type of car it is, bodged repairs from previous accidents. 

BMW has form at producing enviably talented sporting diesels, and never was this truer than with the M340d Touring: a 335bhp four-wheel-drive estate with more torque than a Gordon Murray T50, the ability to return 45mpg and enough space for two large dogs.

Scroll through the classifieds and you will find three-year-old examples with 50,000 miles on the clock for around £30,000. Watch out for a sticky brake pedal and surprise oil leaks from loose turbo bearings, but if you look after your car, it will be reliable. 

The Dacia Jogger made our top five, but it hasn’t had enough time to become a used bargain. In lieu of that, enter the Logan MCV: a stretched Sandero offering 573 litres of boot space with the seats up and a Volvo V70-rivalling 1518 litres with them folded down.

They are available from around £2000 for cars from 2015, making a Logan the best-value car relative to its age on this list. Beware of issues with rust and the engine management system, and in rare cases cars with a sticky throttle. 

Mazda’s MX-5 is the Nintendo Wii of the car world: as accessible as it is fun, and so many have found homes that it’s absurdly cheap to buy on the used market.

Indeed, just £8000 now gets you into an early Mk4 MX-5, and you can take your pick of both the 1.5 and 2.0 -litre engines. Both are stellar. Reliability is very good on the whole, but watch out for grinding gears (the gearbox is a weak link) and for the early signs of chassis rust on older or higher-mileage cars.

Journalists from Adelaide to Zurich wax lyrical about the A110’s ability to dance down a road. They talk at great length about the handling poise and deftness and its distinguished, raspy engine note – and they’re not wrong. Adding to this appeal is that used ones now cost from around £34,000.

But what of its reliability? Some owners – including our own Steve Cropley – have had fuel pump problems, with the car displaying a warning light and running rough. A subsequent recall is addressing the issue. 

As fabulous as it is, examples of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N haven’t hit used forecourts yet. So we’re turning our attention to the Korean marque’s other full-fat hot hatchback, the 276bhp i30 N.

Its asphalt-flattening character is divisive, but a starting price of just under £18,000 for pre-facelift examples is much more convincing. They are largely reliable and there are plenty of them out there, so it shouldn’t be hard to find a good one. Just check very carefully for any signs of extra-hard track use and accident damage.

Is this the performance car bargain of our time? Thanks to the low benefit-in-kind tax rates for EVs, loads of these ended up on company fleets around three years ago and have now flooded the used market.

That means £45,000 is enough to get you into a prestigious and prodigious electric luxury saloon that will leave most supercars for dead off the lights. Keep an eye out for air-con and infotainment issues, and use a home charger to maximise the value for money. 

We have loved the twee Seven for decades, but with kit prices now starting from a hardly pocket-money £29,490, it can be tough to commit to buying a new one. Thankfully, perfectly desirable older examples – which you won’t have to build yourself – are available for around half of that.

An array of engines were used over the years, but you will typically find a mix of Ford Crossflow, Rover K-series and Vauxhall-engined cars under the £15,000 mark. All are plenty sufficient. 

In true Maserati fashion, this wonderful supercar is beginning to depreciate rather quickly. Two- to three-year-old coupés with a few thousand miles on the clock can be picked up for around £150,000, which is a healthy discount compared with Maserati’s £190,275 launch price.

It’s still not an insignificant amount, but it nets you one of the best all-round supercars available, with savage performance allied to a softness that lends itself well to Britain’s craggy roads. It helps that it’s a looker, too. 

There’s a good reason why Toyota has sold more than 44 million of these over 12 generations: they are economical and come with a stellar reliability record. Engines were all petrol and included a 112bhp 1.2-litre turbo, a 120bhp hybrid 1.8 and a 178bhp 2.0-litre hybrid, and all are as efficient as the Corolla’s exterior design.

Inside, you are greeted by a healthy dose of Japanese logic. You will need around £14,000 to bag a late-2018 or early-2019 example. 

This is the car that flew in the face of the four-door one-upmanship practised by the usual suspects from Germany. When the Giulia arrived it had few shortcomings, making it a more than credible rival for the Merc C-Class, Audi A4 and BMW 3 Series, and it’s now available from around £10,000.

Reliability, however, isn’t so rosy. In sister title What Car?’s 2023 Reliability Survey, the Giulia was the second-least reliable executive car, with bugbears relating to the batteries, electrics and engine. 

The sharply styled Born lends plenty of visual flair to what might otherwise be considered just another EV. It drives nicely too, feeling keen and precise and displaying a decent amount of throttle-adjustability.

It’s not exactly a driver’s car, but you would be happy with it on a day-to-day basis. Beware electrical glitches, but otherwise it’s a reliable thing. Entry-level V1 Borns cost from around £20,000, with plusher V2 editions only a couple of grand more.

The Spectre may be the most expensive EV on sale, but surely the next best thing is its spiritual predecessor? A car of considerable allure and pomp, it’s something that is as dynamic as it dares to be and luxurious as it ought to be, complete with a crystal rotary controller, inch-thick carpets and a voice control system especially receptive to ‘Play BBC Radio 4’.

You will need around £90,000 to buy one with 50,000 miles and on a 15 plate. 

The Cayman GT4 RS is a special thing, but at £123,000 it’s unattainable for most of us. The Cayman R of a decade ago is almost as good to drive, but it costs a third as much.

If the near-£60,000 entry price of the rough-and-ready Defender doesn’t pique your interest, you could try a similarly rough-and-ready, and impressively capable, Discovery for around £15k. 

Pretty much unrivalled on point-to-point pace and, thanks to more hitting the market than first thought, rapidly falling in value. Just £25k gets a clean three-year-old example, while Circuit Pack cars start from around £26k. 

It might look like a standard Type R, but the bodywork (and paperwork) reveals it’s a Japanese import, gaining a more powerful 2.0-litre engine, limited-slip differential and bucket seats. 

The Revuelto has sold out until 2026, so what to drive to pass the time before then? A £60,000 Gallardo might tide you over – be it until the waiting list is clear or your Euromillions numbers finally come up.

So much was spent on the development of the W140-generation S-Class that it was nicknamed the Billion Dollar Car, but as a result nearly half a million were sold. Unfortunately few remain, but those that do cost around £5000. 

This short-lived junior Atom lost a gear and used a milder 158bhp Honda engine, but it was no less riotous a thing for it. Today they float around the £25,000 mark, which makes them something of a bargain against later cars. 

What once cost £180,000 new can now be bought from just £62,500. That’s good news if you don’t fancy the near-£250,000 asking price of a 750S but want something barely any less talented. 

The new Sport is brilliant, but £75k is quite some entry price, especially compared with its mid-noughties forebear. Just £8k gets you a decent one with a lusty engine. 

It’s not an ID 7, or an EV. Quite some way from it, in fact: the Phaeton’s only battery powers a sizeable alternator. Still, a 5.0 V10, 553lb ft and an £8000 starting price: alternative options don’t come much more different than this. 

A DB12 is a lovely thing, but it doesn’t have a V12 engine or a manual gearbox. A DB9 comes with both, and it just so happens that you can snag one for a fraction of the DB12’s price: how does £35,000 sound?

This credible alternative to the Roma comes with a 5.5-litre V12, a six-speed manual gearbox and a price of around £60,000. Check for cracked suspension bushes and rusty wishbones, and you’re living the dream. 

Forget for a moment the comfortable, spacious and reliable new Clio. What you really want is to embrace your inner Jean Ragnotti in a Clio Williams. Get a runner from £10k, while immaculate cars are more than £30k. 

Fancy the retro-styled charm of the new Land Cruiser but find yourself restricted to a budget of around £20,000? This six-cylinder import is the answer. The FJ has cult-classic appeal, and you will rarely see another on the road. 

How much more can you expect from a straight-six-engined, rear-wheel-drive BMW that blows away its closest rivals and is available from around £14,000? Not much. The M240i coupé delivers in spades and won’t disappoint. 

The hot hatch that lends its livery to the MG 4 XPower may be an acquired taste, but it’s certainly an interesting one. Clean examples cost from £5k, but restoration candidates are more like £2000.