The Honda Civic is the poster child for how to build a reliable timeless car. My first one went over 250,000 miles on the original clutch and never needed more than standard maintenance before I totaled it. My 'new'' 2009 has the same reliability and feels like a refreshed version of the previous generations.

I appreciate greatly the fuel economy, though that seems to dip between tune-ups significantly. The ride is a little quirky, with strange stalls and starts, but overall pretty smooth. Lots of road noise to compete with the mediocre sound system, and blind spots previously unimaginable.