Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

uber.

BRM's Golf?

Edit: might not be ideal from insurance point of view.

Jazz or polo 9n3 or 6r shape.
1.2 na petrol is a gutless low group engine, mega reliable though and plenty around.
If they work out too much on insurance and you don't need to go on motorway then a kia picxanto? Several mates have had them, they arent exciting but mega reliable and tiny

Without an decent NCB insurance will be eyewatering. So your no.1 factor should be insurance cost as this may well be more than the cost of the car - so do some searching for the cheapest first cars. With this in mind, a left field suggestion is to look at lease options. A non-UK mate with no UK NCB was able to get Seat Cupra R with insurance rolled in / "for free". Admittedly he has been driving for >20yrs, but not in the UK. But after he did the sums the effective insurance cost (i.e. the extra he paid for his lease package) was c.£500 vs several '000s on insurance. Also you've got a company right? Talk to your accountant to see if there are still any useful tax breaks for EVs. Again you may be surprised that the cost of an all inc. lease package via your ltd. as a company car may be cheaper than buying a shitter and paying £3k on insurance for the 1st 2yrs.

If going 2nd hand ULEZ shouldn't really be an issue as there are cars that have been able to meet the emissions regs from as early as 2002. But for ease anything >2007 will defo be ok.

I'd suggest a Honda Jazz, as they're supper practical, come in small engines, were cheap to insure when I looked (ymmv), excellent storage design, and economical. Other eco options that haven't been suggested are:

Hyundai i30
Kia C'eed / Ceed
Toyota Aurus (Yaris is a bit small, but also worth looking at)
5 door Nissan Micra

anything German usually represents poor VFM - with Audi probably being the worst.

In terms of bike carriers, once you're strapping a bike to the outside it makes no difference. You'll be able to get a bike carrier for pretty much any car that you're going to be looking at. In terms of engine size / performance it's absolutely pointless even considering this. If you've got/will have a kid the amount of shit in the car will weight it down to the point of killing anything that would normally feel nippy. You also don't have the usually youthful luxury of going 3 door to save weight.