ZOMG I'm gonna hurt something....I just typed out a HUGE response to this and the Ledge ATE it! Okay if this posts twice, I'm sorry...LOL I typed it all up, then hit submit, and it asked me to sign in again because I apparently wasn't already (I was, duh, how else did I get to the reply screen!), and I signed in and it booted me back to the reply screen with a blank page! Gah!
Aaaanyways...
I don't know a ton, especially about gas mileage, since I don't own a car, but I've driven a bunch of different cars, so I'll just kind of tell you what I've noticed. For one, in my experience Toyotas are very hard to drive. I've driven a Corolla (which *was* poorly maintained), and a Matrix (brand-new and my friend basically treats it as his child--a very, very spoiled child at that!). In both of them I noticed that they're not very sensitive when you try and DO anything. For example, normally when you want to change lanes you just kind of tilt the wheel and ease into the lane. In both the Corolla and the Matrix, you kind of had to really *turn* it, which kind of causes you to shoot into the lane, and then you had to over-correct yourself once you got into the lane to straighten out. I'd chalk this up to my being a novice driver except a- my friend, who's been driving 30 years, said the same thing and b- I haven't had this problem in the Eagle Vision, Honda Civic, or Hyundai Accents I've driven. As well, in both the Matrix and Corolla (although it was worse in the Corolla, which like I said wasn't in the greatest state anyway), I noticed that when you want to move from a stopped position, you can't just ease down on the accellerator. You had to really *step* on it, and then immediately ease up because otherwise you'll of course go flying! They just don't seem to respond very well, which is not the greatest thing especially for your first car.
As for what's on your list, I'd say go with the Honda Civic. Those things are fantastic...easy to drive, they last FOREVER, and I think they're very good on gas as well. I went on a couple long (few hundred miles!) road trips in one, and don't recall stopping for gas very much at all.
Another one I'd recommend looking at is the Hyundai Accent. Hyundais tend to have a reputation as like a "cheapy" car but they are actually very very good quality--my dad had one for 10 years! It ran perfectly until the day he sold it (and he only sold it because he got bored of it
). And I'm pretty sure they're good on gas as well. They are again easy to drive, and they have lots of room...my dad's 6'2", 200lbs, and never had a problem at all. And very inexpensive--my friend got one a couple years ago, 4-door brand new sedan, for I believe around $11 000 US...and she got like everything, she has A/C, CD player, power everything... So yah, definitely worth looking at.
Kias are also great little cars...my dad now has the Spectra 5, which is getting into like station wagon/mini-SUV size range, but there's also the Spectra which is the sedan version. I believe my dad's car was more than $13 000, but for one, it's bigger than the sedan and I'm also in Canada, where cars are thousands of dollars more anyway!
Kia is affiliated with Hyundai, and he hasn't had his car very long but it does seem to be great quality as well. He loves the thing, and it's got a ton of room in it as well. According to him, it's very good on mileage. It's also a really gorgeous electric blue color, LOL!
Okay, well, there's my 2 cents...like I said, I don't know a lot, but those are my experiences!!!
***Edited to add: I wouldn't worry too much about MP3 jacks. You can either get one of those RoadTrip dock things for iPod, orrrrr just get an old-school CD player car hookup, the kind that plugs into your cassette deck...hook it up to any MP3 player earphone jack....and you're good to go!!!