We're pretty much at a stage nowadays that anything that gets maintained well is going to be reliable within reason.
So my recommendation is something intermediate sized or smaller, front wheel drive, 4 cylinders, stick shift, with inexpensive tire sizes and framed doors (sticky point for modern vehicles, frameless windows don't play well with lightweight construction), and cheap to insure. Also, something that's not a first-year model, give a manufacturer 2-3 years to sort the bugs out. Oh, and decent mileage.
If used, make sure it has a good history too. The least reliable car I ever owned was my '84 Tbird, because it was seriously neglected underhood. Everything that broke was a result of something that had been neglected by it's previous owner, who changed the oil so infrequently that 3 cam lobes rounded over from starvation.
if you hadn't noticed I'm describing a used honda civic or toyota corolla to a T
As much as I liked my Daewoo and that they all list 5 star reliability on the ratings sites, parts are impossible to find... another situation to watch for. Small trucks are nice but can be a hairy handful for an inexperienced driver, as well as some lighter RWD cars. Cars that have 16 or 17" wheels or low profile tires can bleed you dry in tire costs... you can get 185-70/14 tires for $30 a piece for really good ones, but 40 series 17" tires can triple that, and you need four.
If you find a genre you like, start reading some performance forums. If there's ever a group that'll thrash a car within inches of it's life, it's racers, and I mean *real* racers. This is how you find useful little things like on Dodge FWD cars, there's no real weak point on the suspension and the axles are extremely beefy, but if the engine gets misaligned on it's mounts you'll snap an axle in a heartbeat due to CV bind.