I have heared many opinions be4, but I don't have a driver's license yet and I have never driven a car yet, but regarding the future, I wanted to ask you all this:
Id say a German car . German = quality . Also they are pretty common so if you need to repair it the parts will be cheap.
The French are the one of the most efficient they use the least fuel and the lada niva is more of an off road vehicle , ppl here use it for going hunting or bad roads mostly.