Best automatic car for new driver?

[december2020]

I'm currently building up my confidence with driving lessons and once more confident, I'd be looking for a good starter automatic car for someone who is still new to driving and needs to build up their experience over time.

Ideally the car would be easy to handle, zippy, fit carseats for kids, have good space inside, and have a some good height/high driving position/driving vantage point (as I am quite short). If it has parking cameras, it would be a massive bonus.

Any suggestions on cars that could fit the bill?

It would assist greatly if you could give an indication of budget.

Depends on budget really!

I have a ford fiesta- it was my first car. I love it.

Along with budget, how long are you intending to keep the car and what kind of annual mileage will you be doing?

If budget isn't a consideration and looking to buy new or nearly new I'd take a look at an Lexus LBX, Toyota Yaris Cross and a Skoda Kamiq as starting point.

Very good point on budget - apologies!
Maybe up to 10k, but ideally more around 5-7k.

Hoping to have the car for a few years and then maybe upgrade it once I've become a more experienced and confident driver.

Yes Ford Fiesta is dead easy to drive

My sister is only 5ft and just has an automatic licence.
She gets on very well with her 2016 Toyota Yaris 4 door hatchback. It's a hybrid so petrol costs are minimised. It's been extremely reliable.

With that budget I'd recommend an older, 1 or 2 previous owners, low to average mileage Yaris, Suzuki swift, or Honda Jazz.

If you want a higher driving position, have a look at a smaller-engines Nissan Quasqai

How many children? One and you can go for something small, 3 might need something bigger, 3, 2 dogs and a child who does a sport with loads of equipment you might need a people carrier

I've been looking online and maybe it's smarter to up the budget and have the car much longer term, than the initial idea of upgrading in a few years. Changing the goal posts to my last update - sorry!

1 kid (contemplating a second but not certain) so ideally a car that fits 2
1 dog
Unsure yet on what hobbies DC will pick and therefore how much kit there could be to cart around.

Honda CRV - Honda reliability, bags of space

Peugeot 2008. I love mine.

Ignore that, just saw your budget.

Thank you everyone! I will be checking all these cars out!
Decided maybe budget-wise it's worth buying something a bit more expensive that would then last a lot longer.

Initial thoughts now were the Yaris Cross, Mazda CX-30, Toyota CHR and Honda CRV.

You didn't mention the dog in your OP. That changes so much. Remember if the dog isn't travelling in the boot it will need to be clipped into a seat. And would you want the dog travelling in between two child seats. If the dog is travelling in the boot, I think you may have to have a barrier.
I don't know that 2 adults, 2 dc and a dog plus maybe shopping/pushchair/picnic stuff/scooters/anythingelse = zippy.
Have you thought about a Ford Transit 🤣
A Vauxhall Zafira would fulfil some if not quite all the above. Ive been driving automatic Zafiras for 23 yrs. Absolute workhorses.