The dilemma: Philippa's faithful old Sentra is about to give up its fight, so she's shopping around for a second-hand car under the magic $10,000 - although she'd rather just spend about $8000.
"My old faithful '93 second-hand Nissan Sentra is on its last legs," she writes. "My main concerns are reliability and longevity, although I'm aware I should probably add safety to this list." This is always a tough task, balancing three key things that used car buyers look for - but even for under $10k there are options out there that can keep Philippa rolling with a bit of peace of mind.
After working "purely on advice from well-meaning friends as I have absolutely no clue about cars", she'd rather steer clear of European brands.
In your price range you are never going to achieve an even balance between reliability, longevity and safety. Unfortunately safety is the one that often takes the back seat if low overall running costs are high priority. You can still add a couple of non-negotiable safety features, however, such as anti-locking brakes and multiple airbags to the shopping cart when searching. In addition, any vehicle is made safer by having the mechanicals such as brakes, suspension and tyres in good condition.
