1 MINI 1959-2000

It surely won’t come as a surprise that the brilliant Mini grabs the top spot in our run-down of favourite first cars. Truly classless, it’s been chosen as the transport of choice by everyone from impoverished students to rock stars and royalty, and as the perfect first set of wheels we really can’t think of anything better.

What made it such a great choice is that it suited just about every sort of driver. Young, single and after a cheap, nippy car with celebrity appeal? Check. Need an affordable family runabout with space for the kids and weekly shop? Check again. You see, it was ideal whatever your needs, and more than that it was fun with a capital ‘F’.

It didn’t matter whether the budget stretched to a nice, shiny example, or one whose appointment with the scrapyard could be measured in weeks, you could still enjoy every minute of experiencing the willing A-series engine and go-kart handling. And if you had dreams of being Paddy Hopkirk on the Monte Carlo rally, then so much the better.

But perhaps more than all of that, the Mini had character and personality, attributes that would have formed vivid and long-held memories for thousands of owners. Speak to anyone who had one as their first car, and it is almost guaranteed that they’ll recall some funny or heart-warming story relating to their time with a Mini, no matter how long ago it was.

What’s more, it makes as much sense as a first car today as it’s ever done. Plenty of first-time drivers still want to get behind the wheel of this British classic, and while the days of picking up a fifty quid banger have long gone it remains a cracking choice.

Is the Mini really the UK’s Number 1 first car? You bet it is.