10 used cars under £2k that are actually worth having

Yes, it’s obvious. But then so is coffee, and that hardly makes it any more expensive or less invigorating. Unless you get decaf from Starbucks, which is just the wrong answer on so many levels. 

The Fiat 500, like a good cup of coffee, originates in Italy but works every bit as well outside of it. It’s a little pick-me-up at any part of the day you choose to indulge. Just maybe not milk coffees after midday around your Italian friends, OK?

Is there a car as beloved as the Fiesta in Britain? For year after year, it routinely topped best-seller lists in a country that has access to the best that Europe can offer. And also the Vauxhall Agila. 

Its success is hardly a secret – it was cheap to buy, cheap to own and a seemingly endless supply of cheap thrills if you were so inclined. And not just in the faster ST version, either – we even managed to have fun in a diesel one, which just goes to show how entertaining the rest of the car is. 

There’s a decent argument that, on the face of it, the Fiat 500 and Panda seem to be serving the same audience. They’re both built on Fiat’s ‘Mini’ platform (someone owes someone royalties, surely), they’re both small city cars and they’re both more charming and entertaining than any number of putative competitors. So what’s the difference, then?  

Well, a pair of doors, a bit more space and the feeling that your car is a bit more honest and less ‘estate agent’. Not suggesting that estate agents are dishonest, of course.

Oh, bother. Seems we’ve left Top Gear and have wound up somewhere around ‘just popping to the shops, dear’. But the Jazz was never a car for Nanas, Grandmas and Gammies – it’s just a car that worked so well, so effortlessly and so reliably that it became a favoured OAP chariot. 

But did you know that the third-generation Jazz used ultra-high-strength steel in a hybrid monocoque / space-frame chassis? Or that even the tiny 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4-litre engines have VTEC? Er, yo? 

So yes, the Jazz is the most-reliable used car in the UK. But, with a manual gearbox and the right sort of mindset, also reliably entertaining...

In times like these, it’s worth remembering just how much luck that we in the UK have had when it comes to cars. We’ve had cars created with us in mind (and sure, one of those was the Renault Wind, but still), tuned specifically for our roads and even modelled after our best ideas. For more information on that last point, consult your nearest Landcruiser or MX-5. 

And, it’s worth mentioning, we got the Puma. Not the probably fine crossover that’s sold most places – the UK and Europe-only coupe with a Yamaha-fettled, engine, stiffened suspension and a close-ratio manual gearbox. Needless to say, we bought them by the bucketload when new. And happily enough, that makes them absolute bargains today. 

As we’ve said before, city cars aren’t exactly money spinners. Like buying a house in a major city, there’s a big cost of entry to engineering a car, which then only increases comparatively incrementally as you add space and features. Unless you go full Phaeton on things. But you never go full Phaeton. 

So you can understand why PSA and Toyota would co-develop their small cars – share expertise, spread cost and maximise return. The good news for us? You get to choose from three eminently reliable, almost infinitely manoeuvrable city cars. Although we will say the C1 looks the best and doesn’t have a ridiculous name, so...

What does it really mean to be unsung? Well, it’s a song by Helmet, which (fittingly enough) is something of an unsung band. But, perhaps more pertinently, it’s to achieve without accolades. Or, to be completely accurate, to be a Mazda 2. 

The old 2 rides on the same basic platform as the Fiesta, its interior uses nicer materials (which are arguably screwed together better), and both its gearbox and seating position are more driver-focused. Yet it seems to earn little of the Ford’s reputation or sales success. Go figure, eh?

Well yes, it probably does stand to reason that a car designed from the outset to be cheap transportation should find its way onto a list of affordable second-hand automobiles.

We’d pick the Duster, as much for its alliterative name as its all-road ability, but you can get a Sandero for the same sort of money, if you’d prefer. So, good news!

Two grand doesn’t get that much car at all these days. So there’s no way to get a genuinely reliable classic car for this sort of money, right? 

Well, of course there is – we already suggested the Ford Puma, after all. And we continue to amaze and astound precisely no one by suggesting one of the most over-engineered small cars ever made. Get one with a manual if you can, and don’t worry too much about the 1.8 versus the 2.0-litre – both are... well, classically slow. 

Yes, we imagine this is a bit of a turn-up for the books. Not only have we included a Triumph in a list of reliable vehicles, this one doesn’t even have four wheels. 

But this is the Tiger 955i, which uses Triumph Motorcycles’ long-lived and generally lout-proof 955cc three-cylinder, which has powered everything from tourers and sports bikes to street fighters and dual sports. That means parts are plentiful and cheap, as are entire motorcycles with the same engine. It is approachable, tractable and dependable, plenty powerful... and particularly ugly. So at least when you drop it, you won’t mind too much.