Just Looking for Something Reliable

I don't know anything about cars, but I live in Texas, so owning one is a necessity to get anywhere. My current car it seems to be at the end of it's life unless I want to keep spending thousands of dollars to fix things.

And I'm incredibly lucky that for Christmas, my parents have offered to buy me a car with the only stipulation being that it's under $40,000 and a new car. That being said, since my parents are paying I'd like to keep it closer to $30000 or even less if possible.

My previous cars have been a Hyundai Accent and Ford Focus, both of which were fine. I really don't care about how it looks or any of the bells and whistles, I'm just looking for a car that is safe and reliable. A big priority is a car where if I maintain it and don't get into any accidents, can go for 10+ years with no major issues.

So any ideas of cars I should try that are safe, reliable, and around $30000 or less? As far as size goes, the size of my most recent car, the Accent, was fine, although something with slightly more storage might be nice if I can swing it price-wise.