Friend needs help deciding

So my buddy recently got into the whole car scene and wants to get himself a tuner car. He is on a students budget but he has given me the criteria: Relatively inexpensive ~ about $10,000 limit, reliability ( very important as it will also be the daily driver), preferably four-cylinders for fuel efficiency, no preference between FWD, RWD or AWD, relatively quick stock, and wide after market availability. Oh and must be standard transmission. He isn't planning to do any extreme modifications ( no engine swaps, no turbo etc), just bolt ons and some suspension. Modification budget is about ~ $3,000. Considering the criteria i offered a few suggestions: ~00 Civic Si, ~00 Integra GSR, ~98 240sx, ~ 99 Miata MX-5. Give me your choice and reason why. If you have any other car to add please do so, just make sure the criteria i mentioned is met. Thanks in advance

Impreza RS coupe could be added to the list though some may push past 10 grand. Really is a great car for most of the criteria though.

240sx

Personally i like the miatas. I dont see too many around, and they're soo light, and have great handling. The only thing is that they have great resale value, so it might take a while for him to find a nice one for cheap.

rsx, celica, and many other cars built after 2000 fall just under 10k...you won't have a lot of money for mods, but they are great cars all around even stock.

A 240sx with bolt-ons won't be fast, it either needs an engine swap, turbo the stock engine or a lot of money into high compression/cams/header/intake/DIY itb setup/etc...plus the stock suspension isn't that great and there are less than 500 1998 manuals...so you are more likely to find a celica all-trac since they made like 2000 and all were manual. With bolt-ons on a 240 you can expect like ~170rwhp, which is enough to hit mid 14s...not really that great if you ask me for how much money you are going to be throwing at the car. Plus a 98 manual 240 is usually like 9-13k so you could buy the car and that's about it...no money for mods...