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I'm in the market to buy brand new, and want to get a smallish economical car. I've driven everything from the Audi A3 , toyota corolla and Hyundai i30.
Lots of advice is to stay away from European cars due to ongoing costs.
petrol vs diesel , European vs Japanese, hybrid etc
Any advice would be welcome
Thanks

The scope of your question is very wide. I'm not sure that the Japanese vs European cost difference is all that much when you are buying new - especially given that Audi, among others, provide free servicing for 3 years - therefore, it depends on how long you keep your vehicles. Yes, a 15 year old Audi is going to cost more to operate than a 15 year old Corolla, but perhaps not so with a new one.
With small vehicles, there is really no advantage of going diesel. Even some of the manufacturers that have been strong in the diesel sector are of the opinion that petrol now has the edge in this sector. Some small petrol cars have fuel consumption figures around 5L/100km in this day and age, so the advantage that diesel once had, no longer really exists. This also applies partly to hybrids, where you are still paying a premium price for the technology, but not getting any great running cost advantage.
So, unless you travel very high mileage, or are considering a larger vehicle/SUV, conventional petrol is probably the way to go.
Regarding what car to buy, pretty much all the mainstream Japanese/European/Korean cars are good these days, so the best advice is to buy the one YOU like the most.
A few others to consider would be VW Golf, Ford Focus or Mazda3.