I would suggest something with 4 doors or at least a 2-door with a big back seat. Most likely you will be giving rides to your friends or at least taking them places.

My first car was a Legacy Turbo wagon, which was super-sweet. It was plenty fast and easy to control with the AWD. It also had oodles of cargo capacity and decent gas mileage.

Nissan Altima, Sentra, Maxima, or 240sx would all be good for a first car, as well as Honda Civic, Accord, or Integra or Toyota Tercel, Corolla, Celica, and MA70 Supra. Just about all of these cars can take 100k miles with no problem and will be good for another 100k with regular oil change and good care. Toyota, Nissan and Honda are all great manufacturers and their cars can be tuned up to be sportier and still run without problems.

I would stay away from Mazda rotaries or high-power cars like 300ZX, last gen. Supra, etc. becase as a new driver, it is natural to have the tendency to drive fast and these cars can get you in a lot of trouble.

If you don't really care about giving rides do your friends, you could always get a CRX, del sol, Miata, or MR2. With Hondas especially, there are a plethora of people willing to help you learn about them and show you how to work on them. After market parts for Hondas are super cheap when compared to Nissan or Toyota parts as well.

Whatever you get, make sure that there is no rust and that it has been relatively well kept.

remember to drive safe!

-MR