Verso 2.0 D-4D for daughter's 1st car: thoughts?

[UrgeToSplurge]

Hi all, just joined this forum after considering seriously rejoining the Toyota fold after a long absence!

My 20-y.o. daughter is in the market for her first car, and we're looking at a Verso 2.0-4D (2009) for her.  It's attractively priced for her budget, and she can get a decent insurance deal too.  It's got just under 180K mi on the clock, and she'll be doing about 10K/year over the next 3 years (if it keeps going).  So...

1. I've told her to budget ~£600/year for maintenance - is that realistic for this model and age?  What about reliability - any major issues likely to torpedo that? 
2. The one we're looking at smokes (black) initially upon startup, which clears when it's warm - anyone else had this issue, and how major is it?

Thanks in advance for your input everyone!

Angus

 

[Parts-King]

In all honesty, a 2.0 diesel with 180K on it will require some maintenance on it. I would go for a more basic, petrol powered car as a first car. If it has black smoke it "might" be an injector problem which are very expensive on these 

[Yugguy1970]

Here's my thoughts and it's what we went through after looking at a lot of old Aygos and Yarises for our daughter.  We had 3k for one.

Use the 3 grand to put a deposit down on a 3/4 year old aygo, pay about £80 a month on a 4 year 10k PCP.  Roll it over at the end.  80 a month is about a grand a year but you do get a warranty and hopefully less issues.

Our daughter is 18, 1 yrs no claims, £1110 renewal last month on a 2019 Aygo.