25-07-2025
What is the best £5,000 used car for a motorway commute?
Dear Alex,
I am buying a car for my 27-mile commute, two thirds of which is on motorways. I would like a small- to medium-sized car (we already have a family car), ideally no more than 10 years old, with an automatic gearbox, good comfort with minimal road and wind noise. The car must also be ULEZ -compliant and fuel efficient. My budget is £5,000, although I can stretch to £8,000 for the right car. Can you help?
– SS
Dear SS,
I'll do my best, although I think you might have to start stretching that budget straight away.
The car that best fits your needs is the Hyundai i30. It's well equipped, comfortable, reliable and perfectly at home on the motorway. I'd go for a diesel engine, from which you can expect to see real-world fuel economy upwards of 50mpg, along with car tax of only £20 a year. The dual-clutch automatic gearbox has proven to be pretty solid.
The i30 is also good value, so prices are reasonable and finding one within your budget shouldn't be hard. Just make sure you choose the face-lifted model sold from 2015 onwards; these are the only ones that are ULEZ-compliant.
I found a 2015 example with 60,000 miles and a full service history, in well-specified SE trim, for £7,500. It's the top end of your budget, but it has everything you require and should provide years of trouble-free service as well as super-low running costs.
If comfort is a priority, though, no car in this category does it better than the Skoda Octavia. Your budget just squeezes you into a ULEZ-compliant diesel example, like the 90,000-mile 2.0 TDI that I found with one owner from new and a full history.
The plush SE L trim provides more than sufficient creature comforts, while diesels have the more reliable wet-clutch DSG (Direct-Shift Gearbox) transmission. It won't be quite as cheap to run as the Hyundai, but it should still achieve 50mpg on average, with road tax at £35 per year – so it's hardly going to break the bank.
If you prefer to stick to the lower end of your budget, look at a Vauxhall Astra; its sheer ubiquity means it's cheap. Take the 1.6-litre petrol-engined Tech Line auto I found – a 2015 model with 60,000 miles, a full service history and a recent timing belt change, all for £4,800.
As solid, dependable, unassuming daily transport the sixth-generation Astra is perfectly fine. Just keep in mind that you probably won't achieve much more than 40mpg on a run from an older petrol automatic such as this one.
