i learnt in the instructor car, which was a getz, they are the most painful to drive car, never been in any other car with such a lack of clutch feel. funnily my brother bought one as a shit box (ran it into the ground, pulled it out and did it again) so i learnt in his aswell.

EG would be good but a 20yr old car (unless its a good deal) is gonna have all sorts of stuff wrong, as i found with my 2000$ EG. not really a great starting point, you want something that is somewhat modern.
like a lotus with a K series?