Five best motors under £11k for weathering winter as snow hits UK – from family friendly Subaru to popular Dacia

A GROUP of car experts revealed their top picks for five ultra-cheap second-hand SUVs and 4x4s.

Automotive data experts HPI, a special reporting service that can check the history of a car before you buy it, have chosen a handful of vehicles all priced under £11,000.

Britain faces a particularly cold spell of weather in the coming days with Storm Bert battering parts of the country.

Drivers up and down the country face frosty and icy conditions with up to 15 inches of snow in some places and 70mph winds and downpours set in all over the weekend.

To this end, motorists will likely be considering an SUV or 4×4 to better handle the bad weather and the poor road conditions.

What’s more, SUVs are hugely popular in 2024 – making up almost a third of all vehicles on UK roads and accounting for 60% of all new car registrations in 2023.

The HPI boffins studied the variables of each major SUV on offer over the past 12 months, stipulating that the model must be at least three years old.

They identified the hugely popular Dacia Duster, specifically the 1.5 Blue dCi Comfort five-door 4×4 iteration, as the best-value used 4X4 on the market.

Drivers can typically find the Duster for around £9,925.

The versatile family SUV is not only good value, but is also highly rated – not least by Sun Motors’ editor Rob Gill, who described the latest Duster as “chiselled, tough and cool, inside and out”.

The Duster 1.3-litre TCe 150 Prestige five-door 4×4 version is another motor that makes the HPI list, valued at £10,550.

Sandwiched in between the two Dusters is the Suzuki Ignis 1.2-litre Dualjet 12V Hybrid SZ5 with a price of £10,250.

The second-gen Ignis, released from 2016, is available in four-wheel drive – but might be hard to find at used car dealerships.

Offering next best value at under £11,000 is the Subaru XV, in particular the 1.6-litre SE five-door Lineartronic at £10,850.

The often-underrated XV, also known as the Crosstrek, is a compact SUV that’s compared favourably to the Peugeot 3008.

The fifth on the list is the perhaps lesser-known Ssangyong Korando, with a 1.6-litre D Pioneer powertrain, valued at £10,950.

The Korando has been notably described as an affordable alternative to the likes of the Nissan Qashqai and Skoda Karoq, all the while keeping up with the competition by offering generous standard equipment and even a seven-year warranty.

The HPI study also identified five models that offer the best value for money year-on-year with a percentage reduction in price.

Top of the list is the Audi E-Tron Sportback with the 300kW 55 Quattro 95kWh S Line powertrain – the only full EV model on both lists.

The E-Tron has seen a 24.9% reduction in price in the past 12 months, so could be found at a real bargain price.

The Ssangyong Korando diesel 1.6 D Pioneer has dropped by 22.3% over the past 12 months, followed by the hybrid model Land Rover Range Rover Velar, falling 22.2%.

The Maserati Levante Hybrid GT declined by 21.9%, just ahead of the Subaru XV 1.6i SE Premium with a 21.8% year-on-year reduction.

Discussing the data, Chris Plumb, senior valuations editor at HPI, said: “The SUV market, in particular, remains one of the fastest growing and most exciting vehicle sectors, with manufacturers continuing to put a great deal of emphasis on design, styling and performance to capitalise on this continuous growth.

“There are some great value deals to be had at present with a good choice of used 3-year-old models coming in at under £11K and the Dacia Duster at under £10K, satisfying the strong consumer appetite for practical and stylish yet great value motoring.”

This comes as drivers have been urged to try a 2p bathroom essential to defrost their windscreen – it does the trick in seconds and there’s a good chance you already have a bottle of the stuff knocking around at home.

Also, an expert’s two-step parking method means you won’t need to de-ice your windows ever again.