Subaru Impreza Problems

With your budget you would be looking at a 2010/2011 VW Beetle, which had a regular automatic transmission and not the troublesome DSG that was fitted in later models. That’s a big tick for the Beetle. The Citroen C3 is a decent car, but an orphan in the sense that there weren’t many sold and you won’t find a dealer on every corner. As for the BMW, they’re too expensive to service and repair if you use a dealer, and they have too many niggling issues that spoil the great driving experience. The Subaru Impreza is well worth looking at, but my pick of that bunch would be the Volvo C30.

I’m not a fan of the CVT auto, so my pick would be the Mazda, which has a conventional automatic transmission.

The Impreza is a good choice with all-wheel drive safety and a raft of airbags, so too is the Corolla, but you could also consider the Mazda3. It's best to stick with the recognized Japanese brands, European brands can be appealing, but they tend to be more troublesome and more expensive to service.

Unfortunately, to keep the warranty in force you need to service to a maker's schedule. But we agree the Subaru numbers are far too low.

The Suzuki is the best bet, by far. Avoid the older Audi, it's likely to be too costly in terms of service and repairs, the Impreza is a good car, so too is the Liberty, but the best is the Suzuki.

All of the cars you name meet your criteria of size, economy, performance and handling.

You could also add the Mazda3 and 6 to the list.

Of all of those I would nominate the Camry as the great all-rounder.

This is not the first time we've heard of this problem, although the Subaru costs seem high. Company spokesman David Rowley responds: "We will be contacting the customer directly, due to the extenuating circumstances, to try to get a fair and reasonable outcome. We're also evaluating the creation of an emergency kit of these components to lower the customer costs on the rare occasion that such an event occurs."