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When I was in your position, originally wanted an Escort or ZX2, but I couldn't find a decent one in my area with a manual transmission. I eventually snapped up a Protege when I one showed up for sale in my area.
Corolla: Great MPG, but a bit pricey. Safe and reliable.
Civic: ditto Corolla. More mods available than Corolla. Beware, even beaten-to-hell Civics with lots of owners still command $2-3k, so you can't really get them as dirt cheap as Escorts.
Escort/ZX2: Buy it! Buy two! Very reliable. Play with kbb.com and you'll find that an '01ish Escort or ZX2 is less than half the price of a comparable Civic or Corolla. Even its platform-mate the Protege is significantly more expensive. Similar gearing to Protege. Don't look at Escorts before 1997; they're an older generation of somewhat lower quality and reliability.
Protege: Great car, probably the best handling of any of these. I own one myself, and based on my experience feels more solid than a Civic, Saturn, Sunfire, or Metro. My only gripe is that its geared rather low, so the engine spins a bit fast at highway speed. As a result of the gearing, a couple MPG less than some of the others.
Metro: I know a lot of ecomodders like them, but I test drove one, and I felt less safe than I do on my motorcycle. They're notoriously unsafe in terms of crash tests, so my fears seem to be justified. I thought I wanted a Metro until I tried driving one.
Sunfire, NO. Rotten car: awful reliability, poor durability, very uncomfortable.
Saturn: it'll start every time, but there are better deals for the money.
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