Officially Recommendable Cars™

This is the only types of vehicles I would recommend buying:

Ford:

It's a Ford, which is your first mistake. But if you have to buy one, grab a 1999-2005, or if you want a more recent Focus get one from 2011-2013, but in manual only because the automatic transmission has a nearly 100% failure rate. If you want one of their SUV's, get the most reliable years of 2007-2012 in the Ford Escape but be ready to have to replace the rear liftglass hinge bracket as it will probably break and your rear glass will fall off eventually (just Ford things). If you want a truck, try to find a 1998-2004 Ford F150.

Chevrolet:
Probably just don't. Chevy Cruze is vaguely recommendable but they are mechanically garbage and unreliable. Relatively cheap to fix when they break though, so if that's okay then sure. The Impala is one of the worst handling vehicles in snow that I have ever driven in my entire life, even with snow tyres on.

Jeep:
If you don't need a vehicle for offroading then avoid. If you do want one for offroading, 1992-2004 Wrangler (Especially the TJ's are great).
Compass, Cherokee/Grand Cherokee, Patriot, Trailhawk are all garbage mechanically and not a good value even if they were.

Dodge:
Can't think of a single year of any of their vehicles I would recommend from a reliability standpoint. Old (2008-2011) Charger R/T's are good for a fast, fullsize sedan. Doesn't come in manual though. Grand Caravan is the 'best selling van' because they break in 5 years and soccer mums just buy a new one, for some reason. Transmissions in them die at 150k every single time.

Volkswagen:
Pretty much any of their models from before 2004/5 or so is absolutely fucking bulletproof. If you can find one in good shape, pick it up and take care of it. From 2006 onward though they are absolute timebombs.

Volvo:
While we are talking about bulletproof old vehicles, any Volvo from 2000 and before is indestructible. I don't know what Volvo did lately, but their older vehicles outlast most newer vehicles. Their new stuff is expensive trash though.

Chrysler:
Again, hard avoid. Probably one of the worst brands of vehicle you can buy for reliability. The only interesting offers they have are the 300c because it's got a hell of an engine in a relatively cheap car.

Audi:
Lease this. Do not buy an Audi, literally ever, unless you love shopping the car. Lease it for 1, 2, 3 years and then make it someone else's problem the way that it's supposed to be. After 5 years they start absolutely going to shit and will need to be shopped at least once a month (usually to the tune of $500 or more)

RAM:
Sure, I guess.

BMW:
Same deal as Audi. Great, fun cars but absolute timebombs that will bite you in the ass if you own it for too long. Not a car you want to drive into the ground.

Lincoln:
Expensive Ford with a better engine, and barely much improved mechanically over a regular Ford... pretty similar vein as 'Range Rover, Land Rover, and Jaguar' so I'll include them all here as well.

Honda:
Any year of Civic is doing to be a decent deal, easy to fix if it breaks, and extremely common. If you have a shop that can't fix your Honda, find a new shop. That being said, the Civic is also literally the most crashed car so expect your insurance to cost more if you buy one. The Accord is a considerably nicer vehicle which will run you a bit cheaper on insurance, while looking nicer and having more space/better technology.

Buick:
Just don't. Fastest depreciating vehicle in North America and by a good margin. Terribly built. Awful styling in 2020 (except for the Regal). Dramatically overpriced. Terribly laid out internally.

General Motors/GMC:
They only sell absolute land yachts now (Sierra/Sierra HD/Acadia/Yukon/Terrain) and I haven't had too many issues with them personally, but this is only useful for anyone who needs to seat 7 or needs a work truck.

Mazda:
Honestly, some of the most impressive vehicles lately have been coming from Mazda in my opinion. Great technology in a base model, comfortable, laid out somewhat well internally (what is up with that volume knob though? Guess it is a good thing it has one at least...) and a really good warranty, backed by an extremely solid dealership base who does recalls and replaces entire frames on 11 year old vehicles at cost to the dealership (talking in the range of $8000...) very impressed by Mazda. Mazda 3/6 (depending on your space requirements) are solid cars for decent prices. CX - range of SUV's is good, except for the CX3, which is somehow smaller than the Mazda 3 hatchback.

Mini Cooper:
They are fun cars. Weighs absolutely nothing, powerful engines for the package they're in, but built by BMW so it'll break like it's the car's dayjob. Expect to shop this a lot. Head gasket issues, which is a very expensive fix (you have to rebuild the engine from the ground up or replace it). General reliability issues. Annoying.

Mitsubishi:
Fuck this brand. Used to be an incredibly powerful, very reliable and impressive Japanese brand which had really strong entries in almost every category of car, including competent racing vehicles. Now sells terribly and cheaply made, extremely overpriced SUV's (which they call PHEVs) to unsuspecting soccer moms and teenage boys living in 30 year old men's bodies with the renamed 'Eclipse Cross' which is a shitty, slightly bigger RVR.

Mercedes: If you absolutely HAVE to have a German car, and you HAVE to buy it, this is the car you probably want. Still going to have reliability issues, still going to have electrical problems. But it will do it in better style than most and it will do it considerably less as well. This gets my official stamp of.... 'eh ok fine.'

Nissan:
Nissan started out on my good boy list but has slowly started transitioning toward the middle of the pack. Good news is that their dealerships tend to be more agreeable than most, and their CVT transmissions (while not perfect) are getting pretty damn good and are better than most in the industry right now. But their reliability has very slightly been going down and their recall work can be spotty. Overall maintenance issues aren't too bad, though.

Cadillac:
Expensive chevy. So, if you really need luxury at the cost of reliability then go for it. They do use really good materials internally to build the cars, so the inward and outward build quality appears very high. The mechanics are just kinda bad.

Hyundai:
Hyundai used to be one of those brands that was kind of a joke. But they have actually worked quite hard on improving their quality, and their current styling (with the exception, in my opinion, of the Elantra) is pretty damn solid. I would avoid anything from Hyundai from before 2012. Their cheapest car, the Hyundai Accent, has gotten an incredible facelift from 2018 to 2019 and brought it up from 'cheap car' to 'economical car' which is a good difference. I genuinely really like the Hyundai Accent and Hyundai Elantra for their money value. The Sonata is also, frankly, one of my favourite full sized vehicles around right now.

Kia:
Kia, much like Hyundai, used to be a joke but was even worse. Much like Hyundai, I would avoid anything they produced from around 2011 like the absolute plague. But their newer vehicles have improved pretty greatly and are now decently in the realm of 'generally recommendable' if you can find one that suits your needs. I wouldn't necessarily buy one myself, but I also wouldn't buy most cars that people do. The Kia Optima is actually a pretty solid 'luxury' (or at least luxury attempting) full sized sedan as well.

Toyota:
Currently the top of my list for 'recommendable cars' alongside their sister company, Lexus. The one downside to Toyota is their lagging behind in technology (however the newer vehicles are still well equipped with lane assist/adaptive cruise control/CarPlay and Android Auto finally). But in terms of reliability, you can buy a 1966 Corolla and mistreat the everloving shit out of it and as long as you give it oil changes and underspray it in the Canadian winter, it'll last you until your kids die. The Toyota Camry is my current #1 pick in the world for 'size/price/technology/reliability' in a vehicle.

Infiniti:
Having used only a few of these, my experience is somewhat limited. Ignoring the absolute fuckshow that is the QX60's center console/dashboard, they seemed pretty enjoyable and like solid vehicles - if pretty blatantly boring copy of Nissan's vehicles (they are owned by Nissan).

Subaru:
Generally known as fairly reliable, avoid pretty much any Subaru from 2010-2015 as they have wicked head gasket issues and will end up dying on you pretty much guaranteed. Even if the previous owner has replaced it, they just replaced it with another head gasket which will end up failing eventually. Other than that, standard AWD is a huge bonus.