I second the mazda 3. Friend had one and it was a great car for that price range. Had more standard features than the civic, was faster and did look nice in the hatchback. Also they do hold their value well. My friend rolled his on new years and walked away from it with a tiny scratch from a piece of glass. I guess a testament to their safety. He also got 13.5K from the insurance company and the car was an 07 2 yrs old with 30k on it. He paid like 16.