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Hi, I am buying a car for my daughter on her learner's licence in the $5,000 to $7,000 range. I was initially looking at Mazda Demios and Toyota Vitz's in the 2005/2006 age range (sub 100,000km) but I have been concerned to see they are rated as 'marginal' in the USCR safety ratings. The VW Polo and Golf (2003/2004) by contrast score much more highly, but then have the issues of reliability. Really appreciate advice on how to balance safety and reliability - and whether a good VW Polo or Golf is a good option for NZ (accepting higher servicing and maintenance costs). Thank you!!

Our mantra is to always buy the safest vehicle possible. While the Used Car Safety Ratings are one tool available to determine vehicle safety, there are others such as the ANCAP crash test ratings that can also provide a good indication too.
Each of the cars you are considering have a good (4 star) ANCAP score, so all provide fairly good protection for vehicles of their size.
As ANCAP testing is conducted in a laboratory, the controlled test protocols ensure that each car is tested under the exact same conditions, whereas in real world circumstances there are an infinite number of variables, so without knowng the circiumstances of each and every crash and (as with any data analysis) the sample size, we'd recommend to take all factors, including ANCAP, into account.

Thank you! I really appreciate it. May I ask, is a 2003/2004 Polo a good option as a first car if all the proper checks on service history and pre-purchase inspection are followed? Reliability keeps coming up as an issue, however there are so many VWs on the road of this type/year, there must be demand for them!!

This would be OK given the right criteria. From a reliability perspective, it is known to suffer a few electrical glitches, but the general hardware and major mechanical components seem to be relaible enough.
However, as you said earlier, the Japanese models do have a reputaion for better long-term reliability.