Honda Civic. Cheap, stupidly reliable, easy to live with. Easy to drive too, the clutch is wonderful, such a short throw its a breeze to bang through the gears at 6kRPM. And you can do that, because you can beat the shit out of these things forever and they just won't give.
If you get an itch for speed, you can always rice it out. Take the power steering out, the AC, etc. This won't make you go any faster really, but that +2HP boost will make you feel REALLY COOL.
VTEC is almost like a turbo, sort of. WIN!
You want something AWD? You can slap a B20 engine in that bitch (with a little cutting and some fandangaling), and bam! You got an AWD Civic. Alternatively, if you want to be JP ONRY Drift King, you can do the same thing, and then cut power to the front axle. Now you got a RWD Civic. People tend to do this to Integras though.
If you want to impress chicks, you can get a Civic Del Sol. Sure its only got two seats, but, its a convertible. Now, you may not believe this, but if you are 16, any convertible is cool, even if its a piece of shit, trust me. However if you are 18+, this will not work at all, unless you are still aiming for girls under that age range in which case you are a PEDOPHILE.