I just bought my very first new car, a 2000 KIA Sephia. I told the salesguy that I wanted a basic car with no extras. All I cared about was that it had enough room to fit my 3 girls (ages 7, 3 and 2 months) comfortably in the back seat, it should have 4 doors and a heater that works! And of course a reasonable price tag.
When he pulled the Sephia up for me to look at, I told my husband it looked kind of small. But after opening the doors and trunk I was quite impressed by the spaciousness. I am about 5'7" tall and I crawled into the back seat and sat in all three seatbelts there was enough room for me to sit comfortably. The trunk is huge! To date I have had 3 big bags of laundry, a stroller and a months worth of groceries in it at one time and there was room still left over!
Other things about this car that I like is that it has a powerful heater and takes no time to warm up, a major plus in the cold New Hampshire winters. A lot of head and leg room if you happen to be tall like my dad (he's 6 feet tall). The new child safety seat anchors which all cars will be required to have over the next few year and rear door child safety locks. It also gets great gas mileage, Iam not sure exactly how many miles to the gallon it gets but my husband drove about 130 miles on $10 worth of gas.
The only thing I don't like about the basic model is that the seats are low and cannot be adjusted up. The higher priced models have a seat that can be adjusted up and down. But overall this is a great car for the cheap price tag.