which car to buy?

[wombosi]

i'll be needing to replace my '94 civic dx soon as the body is rusting apart badly.

what is the best car i can buy in terms of reliability, ease of fixing things myself, and FE?

i'm like to spend under $5k.

if i find a really nice insight for 6 or 7K, then maybe that could be a possibility.
a VX? an HX?

geo metro?

seems pretty dang hard to find a VX in good shape that's not more expensive than buying something newer with half the mileage.

thanks for ideas.