Car buying guide (part 1)

The accent looks like a sensible choice.  Two potential considerations though.  It's reliability is just average (see below link) and it is pretty small. Due to the large amount of trucks on our TX roads (often driven by uninsured illegals and occasionally under the influence...) personally I would also consider mid-sized and place a large weighting on safety ratings.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/models/used/hyundai/accent/overview.htm

The link below takes you to the top recommended cars for each category..

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/sedans.htm

The Best Small Sedan link will list their top pics in order.  Also, check out the best Mid Sized Sedans.  You will notice that Subaru's lead both segments.  For the mid-size, I think the Accord is also hard to beat, but a lot of it will come down to your personal preferences so I suggest hitting some dealerships to test drive a few although, your best bet is to buy a used vehicle and probably not at the dealer..  I hear what you say about blind spots, but all cars have them so you should never rely on your rear mirrors alone.   Also, many cars have back up cameras which can help when parking.

 

I suggest you: 1) first spend a few hours on consumers reports to get a better idea of what models & years are you most interested and then 2) you can do online searches (Craig's List, autotrader, etc.) to she who has what cars and how much they are "asking" for them.  Another great source of info regarding used car values (Retail, Private Party, and Wholesale) is Edmunds.com.  Edmunds also has a lot of good info on new and used cars such as specs, reviews, etc.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/used-cars/index.htm

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/new-cars/index.htm

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/prices/index.htm