I was told that Nissans and Mazdas were about the same quality as Hondas and Toyotas, but weren't as well known, so they tend to be a little lower price. You might want to check them out. I had a roommate who drove a 20-year-old Sentra that had like 200,000 miles on it before it conked out. Most of my experience is with American cars (my CRV is my first Honda ever), so I'm not much of an expert.
But I would say--you're doing well to do your research. I tried to do research, but I was in a time crunch because I had no car and needed to get to work, plus it was the holidays, so I went the "easy" way and made a quick decision. I still think I got a great deal--I'm SO glad my brother came with me and checked the car out, because he found a leaky transmission on one car I test-drove, and confirmed my suspicions of major electrical problems in another. Make sure you take someone who will be hard-nosed when it comes to price negotiation, too. There's no reason whatsoever to pay the price they first ask for, or even within a couple thousand of it.