Buying a new(to me) car

[ForgeCorvus]

Well the title says it all really.

After many years service for both me and my late Father, my beloved 2001 Volvo S40 has suffered a serious mechanical failure which is beyond my (limited) skills and funds to fix (I'm told by a non-Volvo specialist that I'm looking at £1500ish..... And there might be extra costs ).

So I'm thinking of a Volvo V50 as a replacement, maybe one of the DrivE series as those are stupidly low Road Tax.
I want an estate thats cheap(ish) to run, in the lower end of the insurance groups that can be maintained by someone who is baffled by anything more complex then a water-pump, flintlock or trebuchet.

I've checked how easy it is to change the front bulbs as Herself's car had to go to the garage last week to get a headlight done!

Any of our car-people want to chime in?

[unsure]

depending on your budget , a hyundia or kia hybrid would be a good choice .
i only ever see them for mot or general servicing . i can`t say i"ve ever seen one with major mechanical work needing to be done . 75% of the local taxi`s are using one or the other .

[Arzosah]

Hi Forgecorvus, I'm not a car person but I *have* just bought a new-to-me car. I don't know if even the carmaker would be relevant to you, as you want an estate car. I bought a Toyota Aygo, one of the smallest cars available, but it's computerised like the dickens, I can't believe it's easy for old school repairing.