I've been to a dealership this afternoon to look at Nissan Micras, but the salesman is not the best person for impartial car buying advice! I don't know whether to got for a one year old car, still in warranty, or pay less and got for a 2009ish car. Additionally, I've been thinking Micra but then I've read a lot on here about Kia Picantos and Toyota Yaris.

There are some alternatives. You could buy a new car, and get a discount. Companies such as DriveTheDeal can source a brand new car from a UK dealer, with a large discount in some cases, depending on the brand and model. Also some dealers give big discounts. Sometimes they are selling off pre-registered cars at little or no profit to get the bonus from the manufacturer for selling a lot of cars in a given period. Sometimes dealers have good deals. Dagenham Motors, a Ford Dealer, is one example.Thus you can sometimes buy a brand new car for second hand (1 year old) prices.

As far as used cars go, there are companies such as Trade Sales of Slough that do cars that are 1, 2 or 3 years old, at good prices. I suspect they are mostly ex fleet/rental cars. So if you go for a 1 year old specimen, it may be due a service, but there will be a good discount. You cannot test drive though. I cannot vouch for the quality of these companies. Other forum users might give you names of other companies.

If you want views, why not buy some of the car magazines. Top Gear do a buying guide, and WhatCar have a section in their magazine. And of course Honest John's reviews are very good too, and very down to earth.

In terms of reliability, I tend to think most modern cars are fairly reliable. But my experience is that small cars start to fall to pieces after 8 years or so of ~15K miles per year.

My experience does not really tell you much, but I bought my last car new, a Ford Ka, and kept it 10 years. I should have sold it after 8 years, but overall I think I did very well. If you buy new, and look after it, chances are it will be okay. If you buy used, it might have been abused/thrashed. You might also want to look at your mileage, and work out what the savings are for 50mpg versus 60 mpg. And of course if you only do town driving, you have more choice, for motorway driving some cars are not good. Reviews will tell you.