Correction... They aren't pieces of junk. They're actually very excellently designed cars. People just refer to them as cheap cars, don't take care of them, floor them all the time, and trash them. If you floored any car everyday, and never changed the oil, it'd be a piece of junk too.
If you treat them right, they'll treat you pretty good. They're really easy to work on, parts are cheap. It's a perfect car to learn on. It's pretty forgiving if you mess up too.
When you buy one, look underneath. Make sure the sub frame isn't rusty, or you'll have a dangerous car on your hands. The 89-94 had a bad habit of rusting around the lower control arm mounts in not-so-fair weather climates. Make sure it doesn't burn oil too. Unless you wanna play around with an engine rebuild. Might be a good thing to understand more on how a car works tho.