Used Citroën Xsara 1997 - 2004 review

The best thing about buying an ordinary car that's no longer current is that it's going to be cheap. First owners may have suffered savage value losses from you, but that's all past. Look after it and in a year's time it might even sell for what you gave for it.

Day to day, the Xsara is cheap to service and repair. It's not the most reliable car, though, so you'd be wise to budget for problems.

Insurance costs are average; the 1.4 models are group 6, the 1.6s and diesels are group 7 or 8, but the 1.8 is in group 10, which is dear. Fuel economy, too, is pretty reasonable: the 2.0 HDi promises up to 54mpg overall, which is exceptional, but the 1.9 D runs only 43 miles on a gallon. The 1.4 petrol returns up to 39mpg, the 1.6 manages 36mpg and the 1.8 will do 33mpg.