Take a good look at the car mags and see what they recommend. The Mazdaspeed3 is a great car and comes highly recommended. I've bought used if its the right car and the right price. New if its high performance or highly in demand. Don't take what the dealer has on the lot unless its EXACTLY what you want. Remember that you will have it for a long time. Get what you want. I'm a car nut and hate to see people settle for an appliance when you can have an experience.

Don't disagree with the mazdaspeed3 being good. But the original poster brought up how he/she wants to save for a house. If he/she will need to finance $23k for something like a MazdaSpeed3, he/she definitely will need to save up to buy a home too. At any point in time, we can't always satisfy all our needs and wants. So if the person wants a cool car more than a house, I can see where that tradeoff would be well spent. If however the person wants a house more than a car, a reliable appliance that gets him/her from point a to b might be a good alternative. Hyundai's and civics and normal mazda 3's start $14-15k, and probably will last for 10 years.

Stay away from any VAG(Volkswagon/Audi), Mercedes, Saab,BMW product if you want to talk about reliability and maintenance over 10+ years, unless you plan on being a grease monkey or are just stinking filthy rich.