Take the money and buy a Pontiac G8 (manly!)
But ... 24 MPG.
I like mine.
But ... seriously... If you want cheapness, reliability and efficiency, Civic, Corolla, Elantra, Focus/Fiesta those are probably the way to go.
I don’t like it, but these days, manly = 8 cylinders and (probably) high ground clearance, i.e. SUV.
And sadly, the big 3 don’t really offer anything too compelling in the cheap and efficient category. A friend of mine bought a Cruze a few years back, and isn’t terribly thrilled with some of the long term (100K+ miles) issues.
Gas and ethanol isn’t great, but it feels like diesel is going to be getting a huge hit, VW is probably just the first domino.
Best of luck, whatever you decide.
The G8 looks very manly.
Since my driving style is known as “faster than a speeding bullet” I would probably kill myself in it.
I got rid of my SUVs because I didn’t need them any more. Boy do I miss them.
I had hoped to put a tiny camp trailer on my tiny car and travel the big wide world. The diesel had the pull.