I'm in the first car market as a driver with 6 years experience (family car) and as such have been reading every "is this a good first car?" thread looking to get as much advice as possible before making a big purchase. Initiatally I was only looking at Toyotas and Mazdas but have expanded the search to some Honda's, Subarus, Nissans and a few other models that I've seen recommended. However I've noticed that whenever somebody posts asking if something is a good first car (take a VW Golf or Passat for example), even if it would often be said to be better avoided, people will tend to say that they'll be fine if they've been regularly serviced and not driven irresponsibly, no accident history etc. Has led me to wonder if almost every car - save for those with big faults that have led to class actions etc - are going to be a fine first car if they've been looked after?especially in manual models which I'm also looking at? Curious this community"s thoughts on this, or if I should just keep it simple and buy a Corolla with full service history. Cheers!