I bought this car brand new in August 2009, right before I moved to the city. It has been an great little buddy. I bought the base model, but had the dealer install a cold air intake (more torque, better mpg), a shift kit (for a better feeling stick), and a strut tower brace (for better cornering) and it's a blast to drive.

For all this brand new I put $0 down and pay $200 a month. Insurance is $1100/year (aka NOTHING :D)

I did add infinity Speakers and a Sony iPod compatable deck, but the stock radio was not bad at all.

The only real gripe I have with the car is the hatch lock. Because it's a base accent, the doors have manual locks. This means I have to unlock the hatch with the key, open it, then lock it again with the key when I close it. There's no open/lock switch inside or on the door. Sedan's do have a trunk release. Also the wiper on the hatch has only 'on' or 'off', no 'intermittent' setting. No one needs a constantly operating rear wiper.

Other than that, it's been reliable even with light abuse (I've done all the required services on time), it has way more room inside that it looks (I put a dinner table and 3 chairs in there last week), and it actually has decent styling. Call it boring if you want, but it won't look stupid in 5 years.