10 Capable Winter Cars For Under £5000

British winters can be a bit hit and miss, to say the least. A lot of the time, they’re just grey, wet and gloomy, but every now and then, proper winter weather arrives, making even Milton Keynes look like it could be on the front of a Christmas card.

It’s when this happens that chaos is brought to the roads – because it’s not a hugely common occurrence, drivers and their cars often aren’t particularly prepared, slowing traffic to a crawl and leading to people in Nissan Jukes slithering about hopelessly when trying to climb a small incline.

So what to do, other than stock yourself up on winter-ready products? One option, at least approaching things with our dubious ‘more cars = better’ logic, is to pick up a cheap winter hack that’ll see you through when the snow and ice does arrive, but not feel too unnecessary when everything’s just wet and muddy instead.

With that in mind, we’ve rounded up 10 winter beaters you can grab for under £5000. All offer all-wheel drive, handy ground clearance, and a bit of all-important character that the modern crop of SUVs simply can’t.

Audi A6 Allroad

The always-niche jacked-up estate genre is all but dead these days, but back when it was having a bit of a boom, one of its progenitors was the Audi A6 Allroad. The recipe was simple: take the Audi A6 Avant – already available with Quattro all-wheel drive, because Audi – raise the suspension, and fit some plastic body cladding to make it look extra rough-and-ready.

The resulting package married a hugely spacious, luxurious cabin with just a little bit of extra ability over rough ground, and with examples of the first three generations available for our £5k budget, it looks seriously tempting for some winter wafting. Just don’t mention the potential for catastrophic air suspension failure.

Subaru Forester

That lifted estate trend was kicked off in 1994 by the Subaru Outback, so obviously, we’re skipping over that car and shedding some light on the Forester instead. Nowadays, the Forester is quite a sadly generic hybrid crossover, but in its earlier forms, it was a different kind of hybrid – not in the powertrain department, but in the body style one, a sort of halfway house between estate and full-on SUV.

All-wheel drive was standard, and they even came with the option of the punchy turbo engine from the Impreza WRX, making them into a bit of an all-weather sleeper. They’re known as generally tough cars too, usual Subaru head gasket woes notwithstanding, so as long as you budget a decent amount for fuel, you’ll be laughing.

Volvo XC70

Sweden is a country that does winter properly, so it should come as no surprise that its biggest carmaker has always done a fine line in winter-ready cars. The Volvo XC70, and its forebear, the V70 Cross Country, was the chief rival to the A6 Allroad back in the day.

But what the Audi had in luxury and performance, the XC70 made up for in comfort and sheer space – it’s basically a giant box on wheels. The popular five-cylinder D5 turbodiesel engine is known to withstand serious moon-level mileage too. We’d just recommend seeking out a manual, as the automatics have a bit of a reputation for going wrong in spectacular fashion.

Suzuki Swift 4x4

Want to really confuse onlookers when they see a little supermini scampering up a snowy hill that’s flummoxed the usual crop of front-drive crossovers? The early 2010s Suzuki Swift was rather unique in its class in that it came with the option of Suzuki’s Allgrip all-wheel drive system.

Complete with a lightly boosted ride height, the only engine choice was a 1.2-litre four-pot making a modest 89bhp. Despite the extra set of driveshafts, though, it barely crept over a tonne in kerbweight, so it was still a nippy little thing, and perhaps the most unassuming winter hack you’ve ever seen.

Land Rover Freelander 2

All Land Rover products have at least some winter cred – all-season ability is the whole point of the brand. But at a £5000 budget, most are going to come with some level of enormous risk attached.

While we hesitate to call it the least risky, perhaps the most un-risky is the second-gen Freelander – mainly because most of the oily bits came from Ford and Volvo. It still had far more off-road ability baked into it than the majority of rivals, though, so opt for a four-wheel drive one and a bit of snow should be no problem. For reasons that are lost to the mists of time, you could even get the Freelander 2 with a 3.2-litre, nat-asp straight-six. If you really wanted to.

Daihatsu Terios

Awww! Look at the little Daihatsu Terios! It’s so cute! But don’t be fooled – it’s also a surprisingly capable little 4x4, with a chassis construction that was an unusual cross between a monocoque and ladder frame.

It had reliability on its side too, with Toyota-based engines, and lightness – even the bigger five-door models weighed just 1170kg, and you can never underestimate the benefit of that in slippery conditions.

Fiat Panda 4x4

But if it’s a lightweight yet capable baby off-roader you’re after, it’s hard to go wrong with the granddaddy of them all, the Fiat Panda 4x4. Okay, you’ll probably be looking at one of the second-gen cars if you don’t want to walk out to a pile of rust on a snowy morning, but they’re still impressively capable little cars.

For our budget, second- and third-gen cars with both petrol and diesel engines are plentiful, and as anyone who lives in the loftiest reaches of the Alps will attest to, they can more than hold their own when winter comes, thanks to its hydraulically operated all-wheel drive system.

Dacia Duster Mk1

The whole point of Dacias is that they’re cheap when they’re new, so when they’re second-hand, they’re really cheap. Case in point, there are loads of 4x4 examples of the first-gen Duster around for under £5k, even with reasonably low miles on them compared to lots of other cars on this list.

Granted, these early Dusters are about as basic and bare-bones as SUV-type things get, but that’s rather the point. If you live somewhere prone to cold snaps and just need something you can slap some winter tyres on to get you through the chilly months, it’s very, very hard to go wrong here. Bonus points for finding one in ultra-basic, unpainted-bumper Access spec.

Skoda Yeti

If you ever want a bit of a surprise, take a look at how well Skoda Yetis appear to be holding their value. People seem to really love these boxy little so-and-sos, especially in 4x4 guise, which means that any at our budget wear surprisingly high miles.

It’s all proven VW Group stuff underneath, though, so that mileage shouldn’t be a huge concern as long as the car’s been looked after, and in return, you’re getting a surprisingly capable, enormously practical little SUV to see you through the colder months. No wonder people love them so much.

Renault Kangoo Trekka

We end with a bit of a wildcard, because you’re not going to find a Renault Kangoo Trekka that easily. The number sold in Britain numbers in the hundreds, not the thousands. But if you do track one down, you’ll be getting something pretty unique.

Essentially, the Trekka took Renault’s allotment-friendly van-with-windows and popped in the full-time four-wheel drive system from the equally rare-groove Scenic RX4, essentially predating the current obsession for jacked-up ‘lifestyle’ vans by 20-odd years. Track one down, and you’ve not only got a highly useful all-weather vehicle, but a great conversation starter. For nerds, anyway.