With the following details you hit up, I would suggest something from Honda. Civic or Accord (coupe) are good choices.
The parts for civic are pretty cheap and trust me, I have about 5 friends who got the Civic as a first car and a couple who got the Prelude and Accord Coupe. Its just how it is around here. Accord coups is still hot though and can last hundreds of thousands of miles.
Honda Preludes are the best from Honda as a sporty but not too sporty car. But I haven't seen any automatic Preludes yet most are manual transmission.
If possible though I would get a Nissan Z above any car (currently trying to get one myself) but with you price range its hard to find one that cheap unless it has over 100k miles.
Im not a fan of Hyundai's at all so I would say don't get it.