The Ford Fusion has been very reliable so far.
Honda has a higher recent reliability than Toyota.
Toyota is losing a bit of reliability due to them increasing their
production too fast.

Ok, so you've had bad experiences with used cars.  Understandable.  But a
Ford, VW and Pontiac as used?  No comment.

Ok, so scratch the Civic.  The Accord will fit nicely to your prerequisites.

Ok - that's a way to go.  But you'd be able to afford more car if you
considered buying and hanging onto one for a while, even if it meant a
little more maintenance costs.

You can still go wrong with any car.  Odds are stacked more against you on
certain makes/models.

-Dave

The LH car Concorde 1995 3.3L  83k miles. Also came as the Intrepid and
Vision. My only significant problem has been the air conditioner; a well
known problem. Chrysler extended the warranty on it to 7 years and
repaired mine 3 times, totally at their expense.  Most of the problem
was the heat exchanger leaking, they finally were successful as it has
now been perfectly OK for 6 years.
The 3.3L engine is noted as being rock solid, mine is as new.  The
transmission has an expected life of about 200k miles before repair,
again mine is as new.  The body doesn't rust even with my winter driving
on salt and gravel to the ski hills and the interior wears very slowly,
in fact the always used drivers seat is as new.

The Concorde  is a tough car to leave, because I love driving it. The
handling is first class, sports car handling hidden in a family sedan.  
Few cars I have driven come close to it's handling and this with it's
original shocks and springs. I don't baby it either.
I owned several European and Japanese cars some years ago, so a car with
excellent handling is very important to me.

No I'm not lucky with my Concorde's reliability. I have a friend who has
his father's 1994 that now has 144k miles, still no significant
problems.  Another friend with a '96 that is also solid as a rock.
The 3.3L engine is still used in the Vans.
In a smaller city a few years ago I saw a '96 that was still giving good
service as a taxi. I'd love to have seen the mileage on it.

Chrysler did have serious problems with the very advanced auto
transmission in the early 90s, the first several years. By about 1994
they got it right and problems since then have probably been people
using the incorrect oil and not maintaining it frequently enough.
Other manufacturers now have similar automatics and correct maintenance
(lubrication & flushing) is also very important for them.

Chrysler has had some problem engines since 1980, but to my knowledge
all were designed by foreign manufacturers.  Some troublesome Chrysler
engines I know about are:
-The VW 4 cly in the early FWD Chrysler cars, which had the VW valve
seal problem. Chrysler honored the class action lawsuit filed on this
problem, before VW did.
-The Mitsubishi 4 cyl and V6 which burned significant oil far too soon.
-The 2.7L V6, a very high performance engine designed by Mitsubishi,
which needs synthetic oil and/or more frequent changes to counter sludge
build up. Other manufacturers of recent design high performance engines
also have had a sludge problem, one being the Toyota V6.

I'm looking for a slightly smaller, more fuel efficient car in city
driving. The 4 cyl Accord meets that objective, but the lack of full
sized spare capability kills it for me.
The CR-V could meet my needs, but it's too expensive in Canada.
See below on the Honda pricing problem.

I realize that is true now.  Hardly worth buying a used one eh.  

You reminded me of a friend of mine asking me to help her decide on
either a new Honda or Taurus way back in 1993. She preferred the Taurus,
but was concerned when the Honda salesman told her that when one year
old the Honda would be worth far more than the Taurus. That was very
true because a high percentage of Taurus's were being leased for 1 year,
flooding the market with 1 year old Taurus's.
When she asked my opinion I asked her how long she planned to keep her
new car. She said at least "10 years". My answer was "the difference
when they are both 10 years old will be very small". She bought the
Taurus and is still getting good service out of it, 15 tears later.

I'm in Canada where Honda is "tops" in keeping their Canadian prices in
the past, using a very outdated exchange rate. The USA & CDN $s are
similar now, actually the CDN$ has moved above the USA$ in the last few
weeks, yet Honda is unwilling to lower CDN prices. The CR-V in CDA is a
huge 35% above the USA price. A 10% premium over the USA prices would be
on target. Many other manufacturers have been lowering their Canadian
prices as the USA$ drops, but Honda having a low volume and selling well
has been able to rip off Canadians.
I can see the Honda sales rate here changing recently, a dealer storage
lot near me is almost full with the more expensive Honda models.

CDNs are increasingly buying cars in the USA and I notice this is
dropping the price of other vehicles and even some used Hondas faster
than previously. I know a CR-V buyer who is going buy in the USA.
I understand Honda is acting illegally, according to NAFTA,  in stating
they won't honor the warranty in Canada for new Hondas bought in the
USA. I'm sure eventually they will be forced to by our Government to
adjust their CDN prices, then the fast drop in Honda new prices will
happen.
Used Honda prices will be sure follow this downward price movement; not
nice for those who bought too high and trade frequently.
I wouldn't buy a Honda now, but would lease if the terms are reasonable.