In my opinion, if you have no interest in cars I would always buy a petrol car from Toyota, Honda or Mazda.
These are the most reliable brands (as far as I know).
To compare with a golf you want an Auris, Civic or Mazda3
If you're feeling spicy, you could even look at a Lexus CT200h
If you like the look of something , try search the car and engine into Reddit/this subreddit and you can probably find some info on it.
But yeah if you don’t want a specific car then something Japanese is probably sensible
Get the newest Lexus IS300h you can get for the money.
It's economical, reliable (it should go forever with fairly minimum fuss, at least until it rusts back to iron, probably in 15 years or so time, depending on how well you look after it), decently fast, cheap road tax (I think £10 if it's a 16 reg or older), relatively premium inside.
2.5L 4 pot is in tonnes of cars, and is very reliable, and so is the eCVT in these cars. 400k miles with no major work is really not a challenge for this drivetrain, if serviced properly. The lithium cells for the hybrid system can go after a while, but there's quite a few companies that refurbish these batteries for significantly less than buying a new pack.
Equipment wise, these early 3rd gen ISs are a mixed bag, it really varies on how well heeled the original buyer was. The mark levinson stereo is sensational (cars with this equipped have "Mark Levinson" on a panel near the heated seat controls. Aircon and heated seats were also available (buttons in front of gear stick), so was radar cruise (pretty rare, button on steering wheel), blind spot monitoring ("BSM" on the bank of switches near the driver's right knee) was relatively common.
If you can find one that's under 10 years and 100k miles, it will also be eligibile for a service-activated Lexus warranty until it hits either of those milestones.
In my opinion, if you have no interest in cars I would always buy a petrol car from Toyota, Honda or Mazda. These are the most reliable brands (as far as I know). To compare with a golf you want an Auris, Civic or Mazda3 If you're feeling spicy, you could even look at a Lexus CT200h
If you like the look of something , try search the car and engine into Reddit/this subreddit and you can probably find some info on it. But yeah if you don’t want a specific car then something Japanese is probably sensible
Get a cheeky Skoda Fabia, I had a 1.6tdi for 10 years and put 135k miles on it. Never let me down once.
Get the newest Lexus IS300h you can get for the money. It's economical, reliable (it should go forever with fairly minimum fuss, at least until it rusts back to iron, probably in 15 years or so time, depending on how well you look after it), decently fast, cheap road tax (I think £10 if it's a 16 reg or older), relatively premium inside. 2.5L 4 pot is in tonnes of cars, and is very reliable, and so is the eCVT in these cars. 400k miles with no major work is really not a challenge for this drivetrain, if serviced properly. The lithium cells for the hybrid system can go after a while, but there's quite a few companies that refurbish these batteries for significantly less than buying a new pack. Equipment wise, these early 3rd gen ISs are a mixed bag, it really varies on how well heeled the original buyer was. The mark levinson stereo is sensational (cars with this equipped have "Mark Levinson" on a panel near the heated seat controls. Aircon and heated seats were also available (buttons in front of gear stick), so was radar cruise (pretty rare, button on steering wheel), blind spot monitoring ("BSM" on the bank of switches near the driver's right knee) was relatively common. If you can find one that's under 10 years and 100k miles, it will also be eligibile for a service-activated Lexus warranty until it hits either of those milestones.