NeoOasis wrote:Go for the good brands. Toyota and Honda both have a legendary status of being dead reliable in nearly all aspects and are fairly easy to repair. I would recommend a Civic or Corolla in this case as excellent choices for a first car.
I would say avoid the Corolla, the 5S-FE motor is absolute crap on a cracker. You have to go full synthetic on oil after 100,000 miles or it WILL sludge up by 200k and the motor will seize. It's inevitable. It's a poorly designed motor.
Just get a mid-90s Civic hatch, with a manual. Honda automatics are bad news, they'll crap out at 150k.