My Mum has aroun $15,000 to spend.

[EDManual]

She has a Manual ED falcon (my old one...) has had it for 9 years now!! She put it on Gas 3years ago, but its done near 400,000km now. Still looks good, but theres the odd problem these days every so often. She would do at least 20,000km a year.

She says that if the car was expensive to run she wouldnt drive. That is... no matter what she spent on the car, if it costs $10 or 15 to do 100km she wouldnt like to drive. She is used to $5 to $6 per 100km.

So straight away I figure no small car can do that unless its a diesel. Defenitely no automatic car small car can do that. Otherwise its another falcon on gas.

Took her to the auctions yesterday for a browse, liked BF/2 XT falcons but only if the kms were less than 100km. Seems most are going for $18k if on Gas and 2 years old with 60-70k km. Similar petrol falcons are just $1000 cheaper. 5 year old BA2 are looking pretty bad most with near 200km and not worth the $8 to $9K that they are getting. Especially as it still needs to be put on gas at another $2k out of pocket. In fact a BA/2 5+ years old really isnt looking that good even compared to the ED as far as build quality etc!! Strange... Also, she likes the Manual gearbox in the ED!! So wasnt too happy that all falcons are Autos these days! :-)

So I figure she will have to get a small manual diesel car.

Any thoughts on ~3 year old 70,000km:
Peugeot 307 diesels?
Citroen C4 diesels (seem to ave high 4's per 100. 4.0 on hwy! 80kw 280nm)
Focus diesels (seem to be alot more thirsty than I would have thought! Reports get Av 6 l per 100..not good enough)
Prius 2 year olds 2007 models with 60km are worth 15k -17k at auction(hybrids are a worry I think!)

Just as a laugh, Mazda 3 autos that I know of average around 11 litres per hundred!

Any other ideas?