hubs got me a Toyota Yaris - no frills - (you have to hand CRANK the windows down - lol, which is a blessing to find, since the last 3 cars we had came down with electrical window issues and we couldnt roll them down at all LOL - you should have seen us at drive up windows!!), you have to PUSH the door locks shut when you get out of the car! lol
It has a comfortable back seat - Ive ridden in the back, but since there are just the 2 of us I keep the back seat down; we travel in this car all over. There is tons of room for anything we take with us. He is 6,2" and has head room. There is leg room. Great mileage. You can plug in your music player - it has a jack, or listen to the radio, I think its got a CD palyer but Ive never used it! Nice storage and cup holders (silly little things but important.)
I had wanted a Prius, but he was leary of it being too new to have all the "bugs" worked out yet, so the Yaris is all gas powered. Brand new (2008) it cost us 13,000$. Dont know what they cost these days.
Also, you have to figure in the cost to run: tires, parts, maintaining it. Hubs does a lot of his own work - changes the oil, things like that. We havent had to do anything on it yet but get a set of tires and keep up oil changes.
I dont know about the "look" of it. Ive never owned a car based on how it looks; I dont drive a car for its look, it needs to get me somewhere in 1 piece, cheap, thats all I want lol. Good luck in your quest , all I can say is, you have to test drive a lot of lemons before you find your lemonaide, lol sharet