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I can tell you first hand, the xB sort of hits a wall with highway fuel economy unless you're willing to make major aerodynamic modifications, or drive really slow.
The Yaris, Echo, xA, and Prius are on the same platform, but more efficient due in large part to their shapes. On the other hand, if you find yourself having to haul bulky things often, the xB makes a lot of sense (I always wanted one anyway, and it turns out to be extremely practical for me).
The Echo can be had nearly for free, and was even available without power steering. There's nothing wrong with those cars other than the lousy resale value.
The Yaris, xA, xB (and Prius, as you've found), tend to have much higher resale values. The xA and xB also come with power windows and locks, air conditioning, and traction/stability control. Basically, the only factory (as opposed to dealer) options on those cars was the choice of transmission and color.
A RWD S10 isn't bad in the snow if you have decent tires and some amount of driving skill. I drove one for three years while living in Rochester. Interestingly, it was a completely-stripped model, yet still weighed over 3400lbs. The four cylinder is the godawful Cavalier engine. It tears through head gaskets, and universal joints give out like clockwork every 30k miles. On the bright side, I normally got 30mpg highway, and mid-20s city, before I ever heard of hypermiling.
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