I shall further refer to this a Kelly’s Hierarchy of Automobiles. 
BTW, I remembered today that my brother works for Ford, selling automobiles in Virginia Beach. So I can get what he calls a “Plan D” discount on Mazda, Volvo or Ford. Now I just need to find out what that actually means.
Ford just retaliated against GM with the employee discount promotion. See if the “Ford Family” discount stretches to Mazda.
IIRC Nissan or someone else said they’re doing the same thing. Of course they said it was Invoice + $500 pricing, which is pretty much the most I’d ever expect to pay anyway, promo or not.
I’m a “pay for it once, keep it forever” kind of guy. I still own… aw, never mind@
I got a discount on my Mazda due to my father working for a major corporation that has some sort of deal. He had to cosign the loan, but he would’ve had to do that anyway as I’ve got a fantastic credit score, but no “deep credit”. It was something like $3000 cheaper, ask for ALL plans you may qualify for.
It’s not as big as the Accord, but I love my Honda Civic LX. Yummy yummy yummy. And 32 miles to the gallon!
We’ve just bought a Hyundai Elantra Five Door, as they call it. It looks like a hatchback to me. Anyway, we absolutely love it.
I’ll second the Subaru recommendation. Legacy or WRX would both be in your range. I’m a big believer in full time AWD. If you still want to feel like you are in the Black Forest, the Audio A4 has an AWD option, but I think this might be pushing your budget.