Looking at buying my first car

Any suggestions of good reliable cars and any advice as to what to look out for?
Thanks in advance

A few more details.
Do you do long distance or short distance.
How much 50kph zones vs 100kph zones.
Gravel roads or all tarseal.
Budget.
Use ie one person or family of 6 with dog.
Do you want to carry loads, if so what size.
Do you want to tow a trailer.
Do you like manual or auto.
Any size or shape you prefer.
This will help to find out what kind of car you need and can afford, you might even get some good suggestions if you can help narrow it down this way.

Yep need info. No such thing as a perfect car, just best for situation.

Mainly just for me to get to and from work and into the city on weekends budget is around $8,000 and Auto 4 door

By four doors I'm assuming also a five door hatch, and thinking mid sized is about right. Arguably the two best all round cars that you can get at $8000 are Toyota Corolla and VW golf. That's very few dud cars made anymore and IMO the most important things are service history, milage (and whether it is proven genuine) and overall condition. And then it's what you like, what feels good to you.
Euro cars tend to be fussier about servicing (huge generalisation) and it's really important to have good service history with likes of golf, but a good one can do huge miles with great reliability.
If you don't know much about cars and haven't got much knowledgeable help its maybe best to use a dealer and have a warranty.
If you see something you like don't deal there and then. Sleep on it and ask here if that's good model. There are a few odd JAPANESE market only models around that aren't best suited to nz roads and conditions, so do ask.
Another very popular car is Mazda 3 and there plenty of them both nz new and imports.
Popular smaller car than those is Suzuki swift.
Check them out and come back
On imports ask for JAPANESE handbook and service record. Then if you take a shine to it you can ask for copies of service stamped pages and find someone to translate. Don't believe it's only done only 30,000 km in 13 years if there's no handbook. Gotta ask yourself why there's no record.
Pre purchase check is good idea once you find something you like, and if you can find local workshop that others can recommend take it there to check.
There's some great dealers who offer good advice hete, but they're not allowed to promote themselves. I have heard many a good thing about a place called millers car centre up in west Auckland. Worth a visit to chat and see what's there.

For this budget and your criteria a really top example NZ new Fiat Grande Punto would be top of my list. Effectively a current model car, galavnised so no rust ever, 5 Star NCAP, super economical, very capable on the open road and around town. Very very low/cheap maintenance and a great 5 or 6 speed (depending on version) Dualogic auto that actually has better economy than the manual (as opposed to the other way around with a conventional auto).

For 8K you could buy an absolute top example and have enough left in your pocket to bring ALL maintenance completely up to date (as you should with any car in that budget).

Very hard one to beat for your purposes.

Have a look at a Mazda Demio or the larger Axela. Mazdas have excellent reliability, but don't command a price premium for it like Toyotas usually do.

At least that should narrow down the choices, there are five on TM that fit that criteria

My starting point would be a Toyota, Nissan or Mazda.
For your budget, you can get a less than 10 year old, low mileage example.
Good luck.

That's a good idea.

$8000 is currently the "sweet" spot for jap import cars between 8 and 11 years old.so you really are very much spoiled for choice.
If the car is mostly used for commuting with occasional trips out of town then my recommendation would be a 1500cc Toyota of some sort.
Please note I am deliberately not naming a specific model.
My reasoning being that there is a fairly big range of vehicles with the same reliable drive train and as a result offering the same sort of low maintainence and decent fuel economy.
The list is fairly long. Toyota Ist,funcargo,corolla,runx,alle-
x,platz,vitz are a few

Yes Kazbanz is on to it, he knows the cars and the market, What he sells he backs, beware of the not so common brands, they may be Ok for a while but eventually they pack up. Get a good inspection done, You should get a good example as suggested above. Go for it. good luck.