One for the road: A nice little driver suitable for the links

Underrated: The Chevrolet Lacetti SW is one of the best-value estates on the market

Ray O'Brien and his wife are retired and love golf. They want a four-door petrol car with room in the boot for clubs and golf trolleys. Their budget is £9,000.

A Car for the Head

Golf clubs and trolleys take up an awful lot of room and getting them in and out, so I am told, can be a bind unless you have a low loading height. So ideally a hatchback or small estate would be perfect. For that reason I would suggest one of the most overlooked, underrated and best-value estates on the market. The Chevrolet Lacetti SW has always been cheap to buy new, and used you get so much car for so little money. For Ray and his wife the most important thing is the large load area. It is wide-opening and, with the rear seats folded, offers 1,410 litres of space. The standard spec even includes a chilled glovebox. It will be difficult to spend more than £6,000 for a 2010 model with just 2,000 miles. It will even have an automatic gearbox.

A Car for the Heart

As Ray and his wife will have only their golf bags and trolleys for company, all they need is a supermini with an estate tacked on the back. In which case they really should look at the Peugeot 207 SW. Here is a very spacious little car, which has an impressive 1,433 litres of boot space when the rear seats are folded completely flat. That's something the Lacetti can't do with its rear seats. There are several petrol-engined models and the smallest 1.4 may be adequate, although the 1.6 would be a better compromise for longer journeys and heavier loads, plus the average 44 mpg is quite reasonable. A 2009 1.6 VTi Sport with fewer than 20,000 miles will cost around £8,295 from a franchised dealer. The Sport comes with alloy wheels, sports seats and surprisingly useful roof rails.

Looking to buy?

Email James Ruppert at onefortheroad @independent.co.uk, giving your age, address and phone number, details of the type of vehicle in which you are interested, and your budget.