I'm no expert, but I've learned a thing or two over the years.
In general, it's very hard to go wrong with the 'big 3 Japaneese';
Honda, Toyota and Nissan.
This is especially true with a used car.
For a small car, I'd recommend the Honda Civic
A little larger, the Toyota Camry.
I've found this site to be a pretty good place to look through the makes and models:
http://auto.consumerguide.com/auto/u...dex.cfm?o=head
Good luck!