I would appreciate your help. I am recently married and expecting my first child. I drive a company car, which is 2012 Nissan Qashqai 1.6DCI 130. My wife currently drives a 2004 MINI One and when the baby arrives we will need to replace my wife’s car. My criteria are as follows: We want to spend as little as possible but can go up to £10,000 if needs be. The car needs to be 5-door and big enough to put a pram in the boot. She will be doing less than 10,000 miles a year, mainly on local short trips, so I assume a petrol car will be best. It should be cheap to run (low Co2, low maintenance costs and reasonably fuel efficient.)

We have only recently begun searching and there seems to be an endless stream of questions. Would we be better buying new or old? How old would you look at? My gut feeling is not to look at anything over four years and 40,000 miles. We have looked at the Volkswagen Polo, Golf and A3. Is there anything else we should look at? Is there any particular car that you would recommend?