I guess next time I'll get it serviced in advance of MOT and get anything else done elsewhere.

I enquired into the caliper and got a vague answer about the internal part of the caliper. Almost sounded like the cable was corroded or something :/

Giving serious thought to a Mazda 2...Brand new it'd cost me the same as the 3 does now, and is more economical. Just need to find out whether insurance would differ (doubt it). I'm hoping to move to New Zealand in a year or two so it'll be under warranty whilst I need it...

It's not due to the caliper, my finance is due to run out in about 6 months anyway so I had to either give car back and continue finance with another car, or pay up to keep current one. Swapping cars now would mean all parts under warranty for 3 years, £100 less tax (£30 a year) and hopefully a couple of hundred quid saving on fuel a year, and I wouldn't be paying anything different than I am now. There's 20% off the list price this month so it's not too bad an idea, I'll just "rent" the car for the next couple of years till I (hopefully) move to NZ...

Toyota Yaris always gets lots of recommendations, I think they are pretty cheap too.

Kia Rio, i had to drive one for literally 1000s of miles, apart from the indicator stalk being on the wrong side, we had a 2010 plated Rio which is now on over 110k miles and still going strong, the new CRDI engines are great and have lots of pulling power in them, the best part is they are cheap and come with a 100k mile warranty.

All its needed so far is 2 rear struts (due to the nature of the roads i drive on), a couple of seatbelt clips (but thats only cus i was getting in and out 30+ times a night), and a small oil leak at the start when running the engine in which was fixed under warranty.

If you look around and this applies to any car, you can sometimes pickup ex demo ones (old shape) and save a packet even though it has delivery miles.

Indicators on the right are better IMO, you can change gear and indicate at the same time.

I agree, I miss my toyota for that reason!

The trend on cars nowadays seems to be the build quality is getting worse and worse each year. A few hundred quid on repairs on a 4yo car is peanuts.

Last time I got a caliper replaced it cost me £300 for a refurb part so that ain't a bad quote.

Golf Bluemotion if you want economical, bloody awful car but you get like 5-600 miles from a tank and it's not horribly slow and not a lot goes wrong with them.

Don't get a Cooper S!!

Last month I had to fork out £150 for 2 new front tyres, and £210 for my insurance excess when someone drove into my parked car and drove off. At least I'll get the excess back if/when the insurance gets settled in my favour...

Well this is slowly still going on... Just got a letter today from my insurance company solicitors, requesting when I will be available for going to court to settle the claim. Given that all we have to go on is a witness statement, I doubt it'll end up in my favour, so all I can hope for is that the other lady bottles it before the court date and admits to it. Hopefully the witness is reliable and this lady actually is guilty, otherwise I do feel sorry for her, there's nothing else I can do though other than follow the only lead we have.