How about looking for somthing the next size up but a bit older? For my first car I looked at the usual suspects (Fiesta's ect) but they all felt like little tin boxes with buzzy, gutless engines.
(I ended up with a comedy F reg 1.4 Cavalier, but only because my Dad sold me it for £1! It had no power at all, but as it didn't have any grip either and the dampers were stuffed it was good fun
)
The lower end/older Focus or Astra is really cheap for what you get, will be reliable and cheap to fix, my little Astra hasn't missed a beat in the 5 years I've been thrashing round in it. It can hold it's own against my friends new Civic type-R round corners, I get raped on the straights though with a 1.6
