Hyundai's reputation and quality has been improving greatly recently, so I
suspect their resale value will also.  And of course if the initial cost
is less than for an equivalent Japanese car, that offsets the depreciation.

Merritt

No, that's not what he meant. Try to keep up.

What does synthetic oil have to do with anything?  Plenty of toyotas have
accumulated 100's of thousands of km using standard oil...and since he is
concerned about resale,  it doesn't sound like he is necessarily keeping it
for the long haul.   As you mentioned, just performing the maintenance when
required and using a quality filter is key.  I prefer OEM filters because
their anti-drainback valve is of much better quality.  I have used Fram
filters on my 97 Camry and you could hear more clatter from the valves at
start up than you do with a Toyota filter.

One thing I've always admired about Toyota over Honda is the engine design
... now I can't speak for either of the current models but Toyota's are
typically non-interference designed engines, and if not they use a timing
chain.   With non-interference, if you do happen to blow a timing belt it is
not going to add  $1000 to the repair...I've heard of too many Honda's that
this has happened to.

P.S. My 97 currently has over 300000 km and is still going strong!!

That was my impression as well.  The Matrix looks 'kewl', but there's
hardly any storage space behind the rear seats.  

I think you can't go wrong with either car.  When I was looking at
Corolla vs. Civic, my impression was that the Corolla was a bit
stiffer and better handling, and the Civic was marginally softer and
quieter.

I went with the 48 mpg Echo, since I suspect the current cheap US gas
prices aren't going to last forever.