Buying a city commuter now, which will be hand me down to teen in 3-4 years

[Anonymous]

We have a super old scion xa 2005ish. We don't go more than 10k/year on that car now-a-days but it's broken 100K miles a couple years ago. I'd like to get another Toyota Corolla-ish type of car for our regular commutes for the next few years, until my son is driving age, at which point we'll likely have him use that as needed.

With that purpose in mind...city driving/fuel efficenty and safety of teen driver as an important, what type of car would you recommend? Or should I wait another year or so with something else more interesting/suitable coming in the next year?