Some little guys are overlooked in this quest for excellence. After spending a week looking for a car for my wife (with options including a humongous rusted through '78 Pontiac Bonneville and character-less wagon like Dodge Aries), with a price cap set at six hundred bucks, I ran across an '85 1/2 Ford Escort station wagon. All of a sudden I remembered a praising article I once wrote about this particular car in some russian automotive rag (without ever driving a car!), and decided to take it on. A little critter that I've got sported dual-color paint, dark-blue below the line under the door handles and white (or was it gray? or metallic?) above it. The paint job was said to be an exercise of an apprentice in a body shop somewhere in Washington State. Rust was very minor for a rust-belt ten years old car; this wagon even sported a moonroof! After a few minor things done, like tie-rod ends and brake parts, this thing ran flawlessly for almost two years, never leaving me stranded on the road (read above for comparison). It took some TLC to up-keep her - bucket seats, wheels, and tires from a mid-80s Mustang, electric mirrors and some other stuff from a prematurely junked '86 Escort, CB (sure I needed it!). This car set some sort of a record for me - bought her in Feb.95 for $580, put about 30 kmi on the clock, and sold her in Dec.96 for $500 (and felt sorry I did it!).
Oh yes, forgot to mention - my wife never drove it 'cause it had a stick shift, so it was my daily ride.