What I think of as my first car was a 1981 MKI Vauxhall Astra 1.3 with 3 speed automatic gearbox (oh yeah!) registered in someone else's name and insured using the 'insurance in parent's name with me as named driver' trick.
It didnt last long...
My actually first car with my name on everything was a 1995 Rover 100 Kensington SE (or a later model Metro, to put it in simpler terms). This thing looked good (or as good as a Metro ever looks anyway) with it's mint condition bodywork, alloy wheels, remote central locking, leccy windows, and full colour keying, but mechanically was a heap. It lasted me 2 years but only through a seemingly never ending series of repairs and replacement parts (the most serious of which being when the -ahem- wonderful Hydragas suspension collapsed and repairs came to some £350).
But it depends what you want it for. I use it to nip in and around town, so a big nice car is unnessassar.
I have to say, as much as I like my present car, a somewhat more sizeable Rover 400, when driving around time there are times that I miss my Metro days - particularly when I see a space which is too small for my present car but which a Metro could fit into.
That said there are a lot of new small cars that are far better if you can afford them. As Rover are now dead I'm not sure what I'll do if any part of it breaks in the future.
I wouldn't worry too much - the manufacture of replacement parts was contracted out years ago and the company that supplies all Rover genuine parts have said that they will continue to do so for as long as it remains profitable - so if you've got a common model like a Metro/100 you won't have anything to worry about.
And on a wider scale most Rover owners won't have much to worry about anyway; production of the Rover 75 (although whether or not it'll still be called that remains to be seen) and of the K-series engine will continue in China, so parts for the 75 and the K-series engine (which was the bread and butter power unit of Rover cars from 1990 onwards) will still be readily available.
Rover also used a lot of Peugeot gearboxes (aswell as Peugeot engines for their diesel models) right up until the present day, who are doing fine.
And, lets not forget the fact that the 1981-1983 Triumph Acclaim, 1983-1990 Rover 213/216, 1990-1995(and 1998 for some models) Rover 200/400, 1993-1999 Rover 600, 1995-1999 Rover 400, and 1999-present Rover 45 were all mechanically similar badge-engineered collaborative developments with Honda, who aren't about to go bust.
Only owners of older Rover/BL cars need to worry particularly about parts as a result of MGR going bust.
