Need advice: which first car?

I live in the UK and I'm about to buy my first car and I know very little about cars (total newbie) so I would appreciate any advice at all. I want to know what you all think are important features when buying a car? What should I know about? I know nothing!

I'm looking to spend very little — less than £1,500 — and I would like the following features (in order):

1. Very low insurance.
2. Feels good to drive (I've driven about 6 different cars and by far the best "feeling" car was a new Vauxhall Corsa)
3. Hatchback, so I can carry bigger things around in the back (like the keyboard I play).
4. Safe construction in case of accidents.
5. Ideally, good miles to the litre, as I make a lot of long distance trips.
6. I prefer small cars.
7. But... I have long legs!

I don't really care what the car looks like, as it's likely to get a few scratches and I don't want to make any claims on my insurance. But my personally preference is curvy cars, like Ford's 2-seater Streetka. Actually, the Streetka and the Audi TT are the only two cars I like the look of (excluding sportscars). When I've been driving for a while I definitely want to get a Streetka as a second car — which is why I'd like this first car to have really cheap insurance.

Any advice at all (from anywhere in the world) would be really appreciated. I want to get my car bought soon! Thanks!

Well first things first, I'm in NY and don't know what cars are available to you there and what aren't. I think that maybe why people are shying away from your thread, I'm not familiar with any of hte cars you've mentioned except the TT

But be that as it may, if I were you I'd just start looking through Classified adds, don't rule anything out at this point. Start looking at what fits into your budget. Go out and take a few for testdrives. See what you like and what you don't.
In general, the smaller the engine, the better gas mileage. So you will probably want a 4 cylinder hatch. Newer cars are in general much safer nowadays, as they have really been pushed to compete, but if you are considering a car from the late 80s or early 90s, you should research it's safety rating. If you get more ideas or have more specific questions, definantly post them back, so we can try and help.

That's easy, get a VW Golf diesel, diesel fuel is cheaper, and good mileage, it's spacious and will fit tall people, and insurance isn't bad, and it's a hatchback, and should have plenty available for sale. If you really want to go cheap, I believe there's a smaller VW available in Europe, the name escapes me for the moment though.

For the price your looking at and i here hyundai is good there you might want to check it out. It follow in all your lists. You might want to check out ford, you have alot of different models there than in NA but the performance stock is really good. Might be alittle pricey to buy but i think ford will be the way to go. Another way might actually be the VW gases prices i hear are just a s bad as here in canada around 4$ a gallon so you might want to check out there diesels to save some money on gas if thats what you want.