I have €1,000 to buy my first commuting car. Help!

Can you recommend a good first car for me? €1,000 budget, 24, male, living in Galway and will be commuting to Dublin monthly.

Mike O'Rourke (Galway)

Aug 2013 Filed under: choosing used car

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Expert answer

Hi Mike,

Right, you need something cheap (obviously), rugged and that's not going to mug you for petrol money when you run it up the M6 to Dublin. I know, I was that soldier. 

So, you need to go Japanese and you need to go for something that's compact but still has the engine grunt not to get overwhelmed on the motorway. Simple answer is the Suzuki Baleno. They're a bit hard to track down now, but a mid-nineties one should fall into your price range. 

They use a solidly reliable 1.3-litre petrol engine that's good on fuel but which has the cojones for motorway work. And the car as a whole is as close to indestructible as any car has actually physically come. An unsung cheap car hero.

Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Adviser
@neilmbriscoe