I would strongly advise against French if reliability is a "must have"
See if this one will drop to £1200
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...s/40?logcode=p
Or this even
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...s/40?logcode=p
Or some super cheap and cheap to run LPG converted. My brother in law had one of these and it covered 260k miles without a single problem before he traded it.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...s/40?logcode=p
Try Scum tree as well. Loads of cars on their and people expect to get hammered on price if they advertise their.