[biffa75]

We're currently using our diesel tourer manual for everyday work commuting, school runs, shopping visiting family etc... The wife isn't even using her ford sportka anymore (that is expensive!) Nearly 300 pound road tax and £65 to fill with E10 and 250 miles later (approx 10 days travelling to us).
Since we did the clutch and wheel bearing on our tourer.. it's been in daily use, racking up around 800 miles a month on average. Averaging about 45mpg which I can't complain about for the size of the car.

Wife likes it that much.. she wants a diesel 75 herself to replace her much loved sportka.

Going down the finance route as a young family isn't really viable and getting something newer and paying cash.. could be an option but, then it's the price of the parts for said newer vehicle and the added complexity because it's newer..
"Better the devil ya know".
Driven myself round the bend thinking of other more economical European peasant wagons but as we have found from personal experience.. cheaper to run, still an old ish car, whatever you'll save in fuel/tax you'll lose in cost of repairs. A car that is cheap to run/tax etc, is unlikely to have been maintained by an enthusiast, the type of person that buys such a car is likely to be tighter than two coats of paint as we have found over the years