Your best first car?

[Pizzamorg]

Yep, it's that time of my life.

I'm actually planning on buying the car before I've passed as my instructor said they could teach me in my own car so I'm ready to use it straight after passing which sounds great. But the question is... what do I buy? There are dozens of cars marked as a "great first car" but they all have pretty massive cons from cramped space, lack of ability to take passengers, poor safety ratings or shoddy handling.

Help!