Someone will ask you to give your stats and your car history when asking questions like this :p
10k buys you a LOT of car, no need for finance and no need to keep it modest either. Don't buy a new one - let someone else take the main depreciation hit
What budget do you have to run the car? If you have plenty, look at:
Subaru WRX STI
Mitsubishi Evo 6
Honda S2000
If you don't want the running costs of the above (and/or want something a bit newer, as you'd only get a 7 year old car for your 10k with the above examples), something like:
Honda Civic Type R
VW Golf GTI
Ford Focus ST170
You should be able to pick up a 2003/2004 car of one of the above within your budget.
Just IMO, finance on a car is a foolish thing to do. Paying interest on an asset which depreciates is far from sensible, particularly if you're saving towards a house.
In fact, if you are serious about getting a house, it may make sense to just buy a cheap runaround car for £1k with low running costs and save the rest towards a house deposit. They aren't cheap you know