My FIRST car! Reliability/low cost-to-own a must

In MHO I Would get a used CRV, find the newest model with the least amount of mileag.

A couple thoughts:

First, the most cost effective car will cost far less than your $16k budget. Basically if you want to save money on cars and you have $16k in your hand, you should buy a $5k car, then invest the remaining $11k. On average your money should earn you about 8%, so just the earnings should be more than enough to keep the $5k car repaired for at least 5 years, and you'll still have cash to buy your next car. To put it another way, if you want to be poor, spend all your money on a car.

Secondly, I'm assuming you'll maybe move once a year on average? That's not often enough to justify getting anything other than a compact/subcompact car. If you're serious about carrying a lot of stuff in a small car, check out a Honda Fit. Small cars are more fun to drive than big boaty land barges anyway.

Thirdly, reconsider the reliability question. Look at the data on this site. Even some 15 year old cars whose average milage is well over 100k still require less than 100 repairs per 100 vehicles per year, with repairs averaging only a few hundred dollars. If you buy a reliable old vehicle, there are no "expensive maintenance issues" Take a Toyota Yaris, for example. Worst case, the engine or transmission goes on it (see the repair data on this site; that's very rare). Go to car-parts.com and price out an engine. Go to automd.com and check the number of hours to swap an engine x a shop hourly rate. The entire job can be done for under $1500. That's the most you could possibly spend on a repair. Just be sure to find a well-reviewed independant repair shop (no dealers; no chains) for your repairs and they will take care of you.

So in summary, I'd recommend a $3-7k Honda Fit/Civic, Toyota Corolla/Matrix/Yaris/Echo, Scion Xa/Xb/Xd, Mazda 3 or 6 (or Protege if you find a nice one); Pontiac Vibe; Chevy Prizm. Something like that. You don't need awd; just snow tires. Buy from someone you trust, or at least a person who writes long and detailed descriptions on craigslist and has repair records. Don't be afraid of a reliable model car with 100k or even 150k or 200k if it has been taken care of (and you're paying a fair price).

Maybe I'm off base here in suggesting you cut your budget by 2/3, but my thought is that the small-cheap-car strategy will better align with your overall goals in life and put you in a better position 5 years from now.

I found a 2012 CRV asking 17,000 with 45,000 miles,I'm sure you can buy for 16,000.

Rav4 is a good SUV.
Try this sitehttp://automobiles.honda.com/

I would like a 8% return on my money what do I invest in.

The problem with a RAV 4 is that they cost ballpark 50% more than a Honda/Toyota compact car of the same year with the same miles. If you're fine paying that, then yeah, they do what they're trying to do well and reliably. Handling, though is not generally reputed to be great, at least among its peers.

Re: investing,http://assetbuilder.com/couch_potato/couch_potato_cookbook

Or read mrmoneymustache.

Just one minor adjustment to mwcten's excellent suggestion: don't buy a Mazda older than a 2010 since you live where it snows. The older ones are prone to rust.

I do agree that one of the compact hatchbacks makes more financial sense.

I'm not sure I'd go all the way down to $5k myself, but $16k certainly isn't necessary.

The only thing I have against the first-generation Kia Soul is that they neither ride nor handle well (especially at highway speeds), but these don't seem to be priorities. I like the styling and the functionality, and can see that it's a good fit for what you're looking for.

If you do want to blow your entire budget, the 2014 Soul does ride and handle considerably better than the first-gen.

I'm glad the advice here has been helpful.

A Soul is an OK car, especially if you're not putting on a lot of miles. Reliability is good, mpg is only 30 or so. They've only been made since '10, so the cheapest you'll probably find them is the $7-9k range with 80k-100k miles. One like that (or even cheaper with more miles) could be a decent option. I'm not totally sold on long term Kia reliability, and I wouldn't count out an older Honda Fit, Matrix/Vibe or Scion Xb if you want that same ammount of space as the Soul. Cast a broad net and see what you can find a good deal on.

Let us know what you end up going with.