I would highly recommend the saturn ion. I have two friends who own these cars and they have treated them very well. Good on gas, well set up and real comfortable car. Although everyone has their own opinion I’d say at least take it for a test drive, you’ll probably like it.
Okay, so some more from me.
I am surprised at the rec.s for Saturns. We had a wagon, it was a standard piece of crap American car. Uggggghhhh. Absolutely insane design decisions everywhere. Obviously low quality workmanship, etc. Don’t want to start a flame war, but that’s my 2 cents.
As for the high prices for used Civics, etc., keep in mind 2 things:
The magic number is 3 years. New car dealers usually only keep used cars on the lot if they are at most 3 years old. (At least that’s what I saw during my shopping for 3 used cars last summer.) Four year old cars are harder to find, but there’s a big drop in sticker price. (So August is also a good time to shop for used cars about to cross that magic line.) You can find 4 year old cars with less mileage than 3 year old ones. That matters more.
Forget sticker price. Get the NADA price. (Do not ever discuss “Blue Book” with anyone.) When we quoted the NADA price to salesmen, 9 times out of 10 the price issue was settled. (And the other times we walked out. Some sales managers just assumed that their fish was going to come thru the door next. This naturally ticked off the salesmen who know otherwise.)
If safety is a big concern for you, then I recommend the Toyota Corolla or the Geo/Chevy Prizm (basically the same thing). I find these to be a pretty good balance between cost, fuel efficiency and safety.
We made a decision. We got a Honda Element. It was a bit more than $16,000, but when we test drove the car we fell in love with it. We thought about it for a few days, did some research and then shopped around quite a bit.