It depends on your budget but I would pay attention to NCAP safety ratings as first time drivers tend to crash and the difference between a 30mph in a FIAT Cinquencto and a MK4 Fiesta could be the diference between life or death.

I have a Fiesta MK4 Ghia with the old 1.3 push rod engine in it, done 9000 miles in it now, paid £850 for it with 12 months MOT. In that time all I have had to is change the wishbones, front pads, clean out idle control valve, new heater control valve and all that cost less than £200 including labour and a full service they are just so damn cheap to run.

Punto MK1's are best avoided as the 1.1's suffer from HG problems and the body work is usualy so tatty by now. I would also avoid MK3 Fiesta's as these are usualy too rusty to consider buying one, I bought one which had nothing but problems butr that was my fault for buying on a whim.

One bargain which is coming up now is the MK2 (98) Clio you can get them for little over £1k and you get a lot of car for the money. My ex has a 1.2 16V on an 04 plate, done which has 52k on the clock (she has done 5000 miles in the past 3 months) and machanicaly its a perfect little car considering its top spec, full MOT and she only paid £3500 for it.

Don't be scared of hige milleages, modern engines can cope with providing its been looked after and had plenty of oil changes etc.

Edit when I pass my test and get a new job I want to get a nice 306 1.9D and run it on chip fat oil

The problem I have with jap cars is a lot of the cheaper ones always remind me as if I was sitting in a washing machine.  Micra's are reliable I will say that much but then again a Class 323 train to Wilmslow is reliable but its still as dull as white paint.