I've got a decent amount of experience in the cheap appliance cars area. I worked at a auction inspecting lease returns, repos and former rentals. And I currently work at a car rental company that deals with lots of the cars that have been mentioned. That and I've driven a 2007 Accent Hatch for the last three years/70,000kms.
Cobalt= Crap. From the squareish e-brake handle to the horrible interior to the industrial sounding engine; these cars suck. They wear very poorly and drive like crap, the only upside is that they're pretty speedy for the segment.
Versa, not bad, lots of interior and luggage room, nice driving position, screwed together well. I just find them boring, and maybe its the way I sit but I dont have hip room, the door pushes on my leg.
Focus, feels nice and solid, lots of toys to play with and drives nicely normally but starts to wallow around when trying to have fun. That and its still ugly and the interior is a bitch to clean.
Forte, don't know.
Fiesta and Mazda 2, had a quick test drive of both and they felt really good.
Accent, say no to the sedan, its a sleeping pill on wheels. The hatch is versatile and can be fun to drive (SE), but feels much smaller inside than any of the other choices. Decent luggage room though, I moved 30 boxes into a storage locker with mine this morning.
How about a Suzuki SX4? It may be a Fiat underneath but all of ours at work have proved very reliable and have aged better than most. We even had a customer walk away without a scratch after a offset head-on with a 12 passenger Ford van doing 85kph. AWD, lots of interior room front and rear, but not much cargo space with the back seats up though.