I just spent a few quid at the auctions and bought a TPS(Ten Pound Shitter), standing bid from scrap man and made sure I had good breakdown cover.
As the years moved on I bought cars around the £500-£1,000 mark and the same again with the breakdown.
As I became more and more knackered I started to buy newer cars that I could rely on a bit more and still had good breakdown cover.
Now I am leasing and I’ve had more problems with the lease cars than I ever had with the cheap crap I used to run around in, I suppose that when you know you can fix it or just get a cab/bus and sort it later it doesn’t matter too much, once you need all the associated mobility gear I drag around with me these days and the fact I can’t just walk to a bus stop then newer makes lots of sense, I would still happily buy a 3 year old motor that’s had it’s 1st MOT and be quite confident it would manage to get me from A to B for 3 years though.