Japanese 4 cyl; reliable and efficient. Stay away from V6 Honda, Toyota, and Nissan, after 100k they fall apart.

Avoid the euro cars like the plague, MBZs from that era are just plain horrible, and BMWs are a royal pain to work on and are really expensive to maintain. VW, Volvo, and Jag; the electrics are a joke.

Fords and Chevys are decent, the engine run just fine, but everything else kind falls apart, but I've had several with 200k plus with no major issues.

Chryslers; the electrics kinda suck, and the transmissions really suck, but the ride's nice and the engines run well...