I don't know how long you plan to keep the car, but if resale value comes into play, I'd personally stick with Honda/Toyota. I've had Jeeps and other domestics that were much cheaper to begine with, but resale was horrible. Honda's and Toyota's I've owned made up for that initial sales price upon resale. My Tacoma I bought a couple years ago for $10k is probably still worth that, at least (2001, double cab, 4x4, TRD, 120k miles), whereas my cousin's GMC is worth maybe half that. Not saying Nissan is that bad, but definitely not as good as Honda/Toyota.
My vote goes to a Fit or Yaris. I looked on ebay a couple of weeks ago, and there were some base models going for just under $10k. I've seen some locally for under $10k for both models, too.
If my HX ever dies, I am going with a Fit. Mainly for the very usable interior space. The Yaris does do better with MPG, but the Fit is not too bad at over 40MPG.
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