for a first car, never buy anything European, go for Japanese, whilst a second-hand Mercedes CLK, BMW 3 series or an Audi A4 might look intimidating, they’re horrible at keeping them selves together once they’re roughly over 60k miles and the last thing a new driver would want is a break down right in the middle of traffic (too frustrating and embracing), be sensible and buy Japanese, get a Camry and I can guarantee your great great grand children would be driving it around in there time :D, my personal choice when it comes to small cars is either the Mazda 3 or the Honda Civic, the Scion xB is nice too.
so put simply if you want a car that is literally trouble free, go Japanese only (Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan), believe me!.
get the car checked out by a professional mechanic (might cost a few but believe its worth it).
put your personal wants (as in what color or how fast) aside and focus on your personal needs,
ohh and personal experience, never hurry when purchasing a car, I’ve done a few times and boy do I regret those decisions 
, my first car was a 1997 Volvo 850 Turbo 2.5 (thats 12 years ago), it was all good till about 50k miles, thats when I ended up getting a brand new engine twice!, new head twice, countless radiators, turbo failure and all that even though I never missed a single service, only if I had gone for lets say a Honda Accord or a Toyota Camry, I wouldn’t have to go through the dilemma that I did with the Volvo, all because back then I could’t take my eyes off the Volvo, so take your time, go through your budget, take sometime out to visit your local dealers, test drive a few cars here and there before making up your mind.
get an insurance quote.
in the end, to keep the relationship strong, respect your car and it’ll respect you!, get it serviced regularly, keep track of when was the last time your car had an oil change.
Happy Hunting!. 