Five of the best starter cars

Thinking it's about time you had some of your own wheels? Well, browse our five suggested choices for the young - and soon to be mobile - first time drivers. 'Starter cars' is a very loose term, we know, because while one young driver may be fortunate enough to have a bottomless paternal pocket to dip into for his or her first motor, most are probably looking closer to the very bottom rung of personal transport; that's the one where getting the bus actually seems like a reasonable alternative.

So, this is neither a list of bargain basement 'future classics', nor a list of our favourite new superminis, most of which the majority of 17-year-olds couldn't even dream of driving to school in. No, what we aim to do here is catalogue a loose spectrum of metal available on different budgets that might reasonably be called 'starter cars' because they're reasonably priced, reasonably decent and reasonably realistic. And that means we don't want any hate mail for not including the amazing 1978 Citroen 2CV (or whatever) that became your first car, bequeathed to you by a slightly insane aunt; we can't in good conscience recommend any inexperienced driver go out and buy something that could cause a fatal injury in a 16mph prang, can we?