I had no idea this was going to be your first car, I would have totally changed my opinions
I demand also you buy a stick shift, it makes you so much of a better driver, you get better fuel mileage, vehicle control, and repair costs are considerably less. Plus automatics are for girls.
When it was time for my little sister and brother to get their first cars, I made it a point to get them cars that were worth more or equal in parts for when then crashed them.
I got my little sister a 89 mustang GT 5spd. It was stolen 3 times (I live in a horrible area) and she totaled it 3 times. It finally emotionally took over her life because she loved the car so much but it was such a pain in the ass at the same time, from attention of the boys, thieves, cops, girls, whatever... I sold it in totaled for for $300 more than she paid for the car in mint condition 2 years prior. She had full coverage for the 1st accident and I fixed the car perfectly for 1/4 of the check she received. I think she profited owning that car, ha.
I got my brother a 84 jeep CJ7
It was so slow that he never crashed it, and he learned a lot about how to drive a really crappy car and control it. The motor was horrific and dealing with the hills in west orange he learned a lot about how to make it up them in the snow with NO power and little traction. I eventually fixed the engine but the carbs on those things suck horribly so it never ran right for more than 2 weeks at a time. He took a bath on the sale because of my parents, I had someone coming to look at it for more than he paid but he decided to ditch it for nowhere near enough money because my parents sold the house and he had to move in 2 weeks. bummer, he drives my grandmother's crown victoria now
Most people I know with great jobs that they don't technically deserve (like me) had horrific cars they used to get through college, and most of us learned more learning with how to deal with an unreliable car than we learned in college. Scheduling, budgeting, diagnostics...
It's how I got my current job. My boss found out that I had used an early 90's laptop to run the fuel injection on my car and figured if I could figure that bullshit out, I could so what I'm doing now. And he's right
So, take my advice and buy something ridiculous like an 86 VW GTI, an 84 240D mercedes, and e30 BMW, or the best car in the world, a v8 fox body mustang.
Deal with owning something ridiculous like that for a year and you'll fall in love, learn a LOT and not lose all your hard earned money buying the car and you'll learn a lifetime's worth wisdom at the same time.
NEVER, EVER borrow money for a car especially at this point in your life. Pay cash, don't take out a loan or finance. Bank you money there are far better things to spend it on later than how you get places at 17ys old.
Or you could be like me and dump tens of thousands of dollars into cars you paid less than $2,000 for. To me it was worth every penny since I'm still driving them 10 years later, and beating the ever living snot out of every honda or camaro on the block
I even took the extra extra long way home from work last night so I could enjoy driving my car in the snow. It's still awesome loving that car every day and thinking of all the memories it has given me in the last 10 years. And that exhilaration of getting sideways at 70mph with your foot to the floor around a turn in the snow is something that NEVER gets boring. Or hammering down a closed road in the reservation late at night just to get to the fresh powder. mmmm