Best cars for £5,000 or less

If you have saved up £5,000 to spend on your next car, the range of choice available to you on the used car market is pretty broad. Whether you’re after a cheap-to-run city car, an open-top sports car or even an off-roader, there are plenty of great buys up for grabs.

As with any second-hand purchase, we strongly recommend a thorough inspection and test drive of any prospective buy. For this budget you can afford to be a little bit picky, so don’t be afraid to bide your time and seek out examples with a solid service history and fresh MOT.

We’ve rounded up our favourite cars that can currently be found for £5,000 or less, so read on to find out more.

​Best cars for £5,000 or less

• Dacia Sandero Mk2
• Land Rover Freelander Mk2
• Nissan Qashqai Mk1
• Toyota MR2 Mk3
• Volkswagen up! Mk1
• Volvo V70 Mk3

Dacia Sandero Mk2

• Years produced: 2012-2020
• Engines available: 0.9T, 1.2T petrol, 1.5 diesel

The Dacia Sandero offers a way to get a much newer motor than the options we’ve looked at so far, because it was so cheap in the first place. The Access model was famously Britain’s cheapest car, originally costing just £5,995, but that meant buying something which didn’t come with a radio, central locking or even body-coloured bumpers as standard. 

The Access wasn’t a popular choice, which means most Sanderos out there tend to tick the main equipment boxes, offering basic but not barebones motoring. A Sandero won’t ever be particularly thrilling to drive, but in terms of value, these cars are hard to beat. In this price bracket, you can also buy the jacked-up, crossover version of the car, dubbed the Stepway.

Land Rover Freelander Mk2

• Years produced: 2006-2014
• Engines available: 2.0, 3.2 petrol, 2.2 diesel

We could have put a cheap-as-chips Land Rover Freelander I in one of our lower categories, but that’s not something we can really recommend doing. 

But £5,000 is enough to buy a tidy version of the more grown-up Freelander II with the must-have diesel engine. Its reliability and running costs aren’t brilliant, but if you want mighty off-road performance, it’s well worth a look, particularly because it’s also great to drive on tarmac.

Nissan Qashqai Mk1

• Years produced: 2006-2013
• Engines available: 1.6, 2.0 petrol, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0 diesel

The car that either revolutionised or ruined the SUVs’ place in the motor industry, depending on your view, the Mk1 Qashqai now looks like a sound used buy. Spend about £3,000 and upwards, and you’ll have a good range to pick from. 

All versions are very practical despite only being a touch larger than a C-segment hatchback of the time (this is what made the Qashqai so popular in the first place), while the driving dynamics aren’t far off those of such cars. Quality and reliability aren’t as good as you’d hope, though. 

Toyota MR2 Mk3

• Years produced: 1999-2007
• Engines available: 1.8 petrol

The Mazda MX-5 probably comes to mind when most people think of ‘budget sports car’, but for less than £5,000, we’d struggle to say no to the third-generation MR2. With its mid-engined layout, the MR2 seems more exotic, while its fizzy 1.8-litre engine is more satisfying than an MX-5’s power unit in standard form. 

An MR2 is far less likely to rust than an earlier MX-5. Buy a post-facelift (2002 on) car if you can, because Toyota made mid-life improvements, and they are less likely to suffer the potentially engine-killing ‘pre-cat failure’. 

Volkswagen up! Mk1

• Years produced: 2011-present
• Engines available: 1.0, 1.0T petrol

After binning the underwhelming Fox in Europe, Volkswagen brought out a replacement that was a better car in every way: the up! The use of punctuation in its name is pretty much the only thing we don’t like about it, because the up! manages to nail the city car brief with near perfection. 

It’s a boxy shape, with wheels pushed right to the edges of the shell, making for a decent amount of space in a compact footprint, while the cabin feels airy and well thought out. As if that wasn’t enough, it drives with the confident feel of a much larger vehicle, and is even quite fun when pushed. 

As with the Toyota Aygo, the up! has a couple of siblings that are nearly identical – the Skoda Citigo and SEAT Mii – so if the VW badge isn’t something you’re fussed about, you’ll have loads of examples to pick from. 

Volvo V70 Mk3

• Years produced: 2007-2016
• Engines available: 1.6, 2.0, 2.0T, 2.5T, 3.0T, 3.2 petrol, 1.6, 2.0, 2.4 diesel

The V70 might not look as slick as its successor, but it has a classy image and, most importantly for a Volvo estate, a massive boot. It has a 575-litre capacity with the rear seats up or 1,600 with them down, plus handy features such as luggage hooks. 

A wide range of engines is available, but with current fuel prices, the five and six-cylinder units will be costly to run.

The best used cars for all budgets:

• The best cars for under £1,000
• The best cars for under £3,000
• The best cars for under £5,000 
• The best cars for under £10,000
• The best cars for under £15,000
• The best cars for under £20,000
• The best cars for under £30,000