Well I guess we got a little off topic here, though I will say that the god awfull large rims always were dumb, gold plating anything other then for electronics is dumb, and big tires serve a purpose, unlike the above mentioned crap.
Now back to this guys question... yea subie would be a first choice for that price range w/ fuel economy
A diesel anything would be the real 1st choice but might be hard to find.
A honda or toyota product would be second choice.
Get a older subie legacy or outback, the wrx models are hard to find in a un-molested form, AWSOME cars, flat 4 engines AWD (or if you get a old one shift on the fly fwd -> 4wd), some people have actually transplanted those engines into aircraft, as they are built in the same config. as a/c engines.
you should be able to get something really nice for under 10k if you look around and grind a little bit.